


Ringtone

by Im_Basically_Shakespeare



Series: Pog DSMP Fics! [8]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Anxiety, Awkward Dates, Challenges, Coming Out, Dreams and Nightmares, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hotels, Hurt/Comfort, Jealous Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Jealousy, Karl Jacobs-centric, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Mutual Pining, Nightmares, No Smut, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Oblivious, Panic Attacks, Phone Calls & Telephones, Pining, Protective Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Road Trips, Sharing a Bed, Sleepy Cuddles, Slow Burn, Snow and Ice, Social Media, Teasing, Unrequited Love, Visions in dreams
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 11:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 37,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27970016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_Basically_Shakespeare/pseuds/Im_Basically_Shakespeare
Summary: A road trip on a bumpy road full of surprises. Chris helps Karl figure out his feelings for Sapnap and pushes him to confess.It's a long way downhill from there.(Also known as: author keeps leaving off on cliffhangers while the readers cry)
Relationships: Antfrost/VelvetIsCake (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Series: Pog DSMP Fics! [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185092
Comments: 460
Kudos: 1391





	1. So It Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl wakes up and after some pining he starts the worlds longest car ride ever (okay it's really not the longest, he's just dramatic)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't send this to CC's lmao. If they find it on their own, oof moment I guess. I don't want to be known for this by them lol.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't ship them IRL, they just have a funky dynamic and I love it and wanted to write stuff for them.
> 
> Story title is from Ringtone by 100 gecs.

Karl laid on his back on his bed, layers of blankets piled on top of him, yet he was still cold. He breathed up into his room and watched as it came out in a puff of steam that slowly disappeared into the air around him. He was cold, cold in his room because his goddamn heater was crap and didn't produce enough heat to warm it up properly. He didn't understand why this winter was so freezing. He lived in North Carolina, how had it gotten so cold so early?

He could see his room lighting up with orange and red, color reflecting off the winter snow and filling his room with beautiful colors. Karl didn't want to leave the warmth of his bed, instead turning on his side and opening his phone to discord to stay huddled under his covers a little longer.

He pushed away the loads of notifications he'd gotten from twitter, tiktok, instagram, emails and others, skipping pasts at's for collaborations and edits of him.

Karl's face lit up upon seeing a notification from Sapnap on discord and he opened up the message, face beaming at Sapnap wishing him a good morning. He quickly sent back a similar message, attaching a smiley face at the end so the other could know he was happy to see a message from him.

Sapnap: Any streaming plans for today? I want to work on stuff in the SMP.

Karl Jacobs: No specific plans but I did want to stream since Jimmy's had me working for him so much lately!

Sapnap: pog, we can work on the plotline Techno gave us yesterday

Karl Jacobs: sure! we also need to plan our fabulous minecraft wedding <3

Sapnap: lmao yeah, we need to find out when Quackity is free to set it up

Karl couldn't stop the giddy smile that spread across his face as he read the messages. The pumping of his heart as it thrummed against his chest, the heat rising to his cheeks, the fuzzy feeling along his skin. 

Suddenly he was sweating at the happy warmth that flooded his body and he pushed off a few his blankets, sitting up.

He wanted to ask himself why he was reacting so much to a normal conversation, why talking about a minecraft wedding that was scripted made his stomach fill with butterflies, why even just Sapnap laughing at his jokes made him feel so happy.

But he knew the answer, it was an answer he didn't like, an answer he found with a guarded heart.

Karl groaned as he finally got out of bed, stretching and starting his day by grabbing a monster can and sitting at his desk.

He started up stream labs and minecraft, responding to Sapnap's message that he was ready to start anytime he needed. A few minutes later Sapnap sent him a go message and Karl started up, playing a few songs at the start while he waited for viewers to come in.

"Yes chat I'm playing Sweater Weather for the fifth stream in a row, don't criticize my music jams." Karl said and laughed a bit, adding a few more songs and checking discord as he waited for the songs to finish.

Quackity: AYYY MI NOVIOOOOOS!!! WE GOING LIVE?

Karl laughed at his other friend's antics.

Karl Jacobs: you know it! We gotta plan our wedding soon :triumph:

Sapnap: Karl I'm on now if you wanna start

Karl nodded and turned his face cam on, ending his intro.

"Hello everyone," Karl said and waved at the camera, smiling and checking chat. "Today we shall be working on the Rapids, or El Rapids, and we also gotta plan our wedding soon because that's important!" He went on with the stream and waited for the other two to join his call.

Donation: Do you plan on getting married to anyone IRL?

Karl looked up at the donation and giggled a bit. "People, please, I am actually The Extreme Single. You have to date someone before you even think of marriage." Karl replied and watched the, very predicted, flood of answers saying they'd marry him.

"Karl I'll marry you." Sapnap said, having joined the call and Karl laughed to cover up the flock of butterflies batting against his stomach. "Sapnap, we're already getting married." Karl simply responded, ignoring the people commenting on his very red face now.

"Yes! Quackers too, we need him to join call soon." Sapnap said. "I'm already here. Woah, imagine being invisible to your fiances guys." Quackity's voice rang out and Karl laughed again.

"C'mon! We have to go fix stuff up. I'm gonna work on Party island, try and make it look nice because of that stupid bomb on it." Karl huffed. "Yeah, you do that, I'm gonna make El Rapids look fucking gorgeous." Quackity said and left the call.

"Wow, look at us Karl, all alone in a call together." Sapnap teased and Karl smiled, pulling up a hand to his mouth to cover it. "Woah, all alone what could possibly happen?" Karl joked back, their normal teasing nature making Karl's stomach burn with heat that coursed through his body.

"Aw, Karl are you blushing?" Sapnap asked and Karl turned even redder at that. "Are you watching my stream?" He asked and Sapnap laughed. "Well I have it pulled up on my second monitor, I'm not streaming at the moment so. Yeah." 

"God, you're so obsessed with me, Sap." Karl joked and adjusted his camera a bit. "How can I be obsessed if I don't even have your phone number." Sapnap said and Karl could just hear him rolling his eyes teasingly.

"Is that your roundabout way of asking for my number?" Karl asked, heart beating and pounding inside his chest, as his stomach fluttered. "Can it be? I legit don't have it, man." Sapnap said, tone back to casual and Karl breathed in and out slowly, trying to dissolve the awkward feeling.

"Yeah! Here I'll message it to you over discord." Karl pulled out his phone and sent it in dms over to Sapnap. "Oh pog man, now you can't ever escape my messages." Sapnap said and Quackity joined the call again.

"Did you guys see what Dream fucking did?" Quackity asked and Karl shook his head as he jumped into acting, pretending his heart hadn't been about to explode moments before.

~~~

Karl laid curled up in his bed again later that night, two space heaters now placed on the floor to try and heat up the room, another blanket he'd gone out and bought placed on top and he was still cold. Why the hell was it so cold, it was only the start of December, it was still fall, he lived in the south.

Karl shivered and as always, looked at his phone.

Unknown: Hey Mr. Karl Jacobs

Karl smiled at the message and felt his heart thrumming at the text message.

Me: Mr. Sapitus Napitus, I suppose

Sapnap <3: youre such a nimrod

Sapnap <3: Yeah its Sap

Sapnap <3: Did you eat/drink anything after streaming

Me: Of course gotta get that gamer fuel

Sapnap <3: Okay let me rephrase did you eat/drink anything that wasn't chips and a monster?

Me: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Me: Perhaps

Sapnap <3: Liar go eat real food

Sapnap <3: Youre gonna like kill your body just intaking sugar

Me: Well its freezing so im not leaving my bed

Me: Id turned into a Karl-sicle.

Sapnap <3: You dont want to get food because youre cold?

Sapnap <3: and im the lazy one?

Me: Yes, there's a difference between being cold and then not writing an entire essay because you're on a minecraft roleplay server

Sapnap <3: That was like three weeks ago

Sapnap <3: Get food you doofus

Sapnap <3: Dumb Doofus December type beat

Me: Fine fine only because I have left over pizza I wanna make

Sapnap <3: its better than only consuming sugar

Karl smiled as he sat up in his bed, walking out into the cold air of his house as he trekked over to his kitchen. He pulled the fridge open, rubbing his eyes due to the contrasting brightness.

He pulled out his pizza box and looked at it, debating on heating it up or not when his phone buzzed and played a default song. Karl furrowed his brow and answered it, holding it up to his ear as he set the pizza box down on the table.

"Hey," Sapnap said and Karl felt his cheeks grow warm. "Hey Sap, whatcha calling for?" Karl asked.

"Just making sure you're actually getting food and not just pretending to." Sapnap said and Karl laughed a bit. "Yeah, yeah I have pizza right here. I might just eat it cold." Karl replied and Sapnap hummed in response. The line fell quite as Karl grabbed his pizza and set his phone down, putting it on speaker.

"So what have you been up to? Like outside of minecraft?" Sapnap asked and Karl smiled as he slowly ate his pizza. "Not much, Jimmy has a lot of videos planned that require driving about so we're all getting tested and stuff." Karl said.

"He wants to film in Tulsa so we're waiting on our COVID test results to come back so we have the clear to go tomorrow." Karl informed. 

"Tulsa? That's Oklahoma right?" Sapnap asked. "Yeah pretty sure." Karl responded, and threw out his empty pizza box.

"You'll be about 8 hours away from me then, instead of a whole almost 18." Sapnap said and Karl smiled and picked up his phone again. "Well maybe you'll just have to drive down to where we'll be staying at." Karl joked.

"Maybe I will." Sapnap responded and Karl felt his heart jump into his chest. "I have to go now, but I'll call you again tomorrow!" Sapnap said and hung up.

Karl smiled at his phone and opened up settings to change his ringtone like he did for all his friends.

Karl paused in thought as to what Sapnap's ringtone should be before he laughed to himself a bit. He typed in Ringtone by 100 Gecs and set it to be Sapnap's ringtone. It's not like anyone else ever was around enough for him to get a call and have to be embarrassed about it.

Karl cleaned up his mess and then curled into his bed, snuggling under his warm cuddles, heart spreading warmth throughout.

He quickly fell asleep, unaware to the brisk air outside.

Karl rubbed at his eyes when he heard Big Boss Man start playing. He groaned and grabbed it, lazily pressing it against his face. "Jimmy, it's five a.m., what do you want?" Karl groaned and he heard his boss laugh on the other side.

"Well we've still got to get Chandler, Chris and Noland ready to go, pack, and all that. Everyone's test results came back negative so we should be fine. We're going to be in a car for hours, Karl." Jimmy informed and Karl groaned. "Fine, fine I'm getting up." Karl replied and Jimmy just laughed and hung up.

Karl stood up, stretching and glad it seemed a bit warmer today. He grabbed his suitcase and packed a bunch of his hoodies and other clothes into it, trying to get packed as fast as possible so he had time to shower and eat.

Once he was refreshed and ready to go, he sat on his couch, scrolling through twitter as he waited for Jimmy to come pick him up.

His phone vibrated and a few electronic beeps came out. Karl's face lit up and he quickly answered it. "Hey Sap!" Karl greeted.

"Good morning man, what're you up to?" Sapnap asked on the other end and Karl sat up, sighing a bit. "Just waiting for Jimmy to come pick me up before we drive the whole day." Karl said.

"Oh you guys are going to be driving there? Isn't that like, over a day drive?" Sapnap asked. "Only if we stopped, but Jimmy plans to switch off driving with Chandler at some point. But it's going to be so boring, I'm gonna be trapped in between Chris and Noland for like 20 hours, Sap." Karl groaned.

"Well, I was gonna say I could call you while I do stream stuff but I don't know how well that'd go with four other people in the car." Sapnap said. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind, Chris was on call with his baby last trip for four hours. Non-stop crying the whole time." Karl joked. "Well if they don't mind then I'll call you later dude. Don't want you dying of boredom." Sapnap said and Karl felt the warmth fill his cheeks.

"Aw, thanks man. What're you planning on streaming later?" Karl asked. "Eh, I've been thinking of joining Fundy's Butcher Army thing so I might help with that. Also Quackity wanted to talk about stuff with Dream on the SMP after he, yknow, blew up the Rapids." Sapnap said. "So might just have you there for input and to vibe I guess." Sapnap stated.

"Pog, sounds good." Karl looked out his window to see Jimmy's car pull up. "Well man, I'll call you again in a bit then, Jimmy's here." Karl said. "Alright bye, love you man." Sapnap said and hung up before Karl could even have time to process what had just been said.

He turned his phone off and blushed upon realizing and put a hand on his chest to try and ease his pounding heart.

His door opened, scaring the daylights out of him, and Jimmy grinned. "Karl get in the car we're kidnapping you." Jimmy said, pointing finger guns at him and Karl rolled his eyes. 

"I shouldn't have ever given you the keys to here. First you cover my apartment with sticky notes and now you're kidnapping me? Jimmy, if only the viewers knew." Karl said with a teasing grin and grabbing his stuff.

"Yeah, yeah, get in the car, we've gotta pick up the boys, buy some road snacks and drive." Jimmy said and Karl locked his front door.

"I know, you've only told us the plan like, eighty times now." Karl smiled and hopped into the back of his friend's car.

"And so our very boring road trip begins!" Jimmy announced and Karl rolled his eyes, pulling out his phone.

As Jimmy drove to the other's places, he kept checking his phone. He knew that Sapnap wouldn't call him first, he had said that he himself would, and that he wouldn't call this early, it was still only 7 a.m., but that didn't stop the giddy feeling of excitement that swirled up inside of him as he awaited the future call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Follow me on Twitter for some pog art and maybe some updates lol (literally_chaos)
> 
> Also why does sapnap autocorrect to Subpoena and Karl to Carl. Like- Gmail drafts please I know what I'm writing.


	2. The First Hours Are The Longest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl and Sapnap call for the first six hours of the long ride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dont repost anywhere, ask if you're going to translate please. 
> 
> Someone asked me on Twitter but fanart is more than welcomed! @ me on twitter or instagram (@sonayesul) if you do so i can link it for others to see!

Karl sat squished between Chris and Nolan and three bags of chips and drinks, another two bags sat in Chandler's lap up front as Jimmy closed his door and started the car. 

"You ready boys?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes!" "Let's gooo!" "No!" "Here we go!" 

Jimmy rolled his eyes at Karl's no, knowing he was only joking around before starting the car and pulling out of the gas station stop. "Feel free to take naps and stuff guys, it's gonna be a long ride." Jimmy offered them.

"New challenge, last to fall asleep wins 10,000 dollars." Nolan joked and the other three groaned. "Please no, this challenge is already going to kill me." Chandler whined. "What even are we doing?" Nolan asked and Jimmy glanced at him briefly. "I'll explain when it's time." He responded and the others shrugged.

"Well, I'm sleeping, night gang." Chris said and pulled out a neck pillow from who knows where and rested on it, falling asleep almost instantly.

Karl played with his phone as Noland busied himself watching videos on youtube and Chandler played Among Us.

"Hey, does anyone mind if I call someone?" Karl asked and the three awake shook their heads. "Do whatever man," Jimmy responded and Karl nodded, turning his phone on and ringing Sapnap up, making sure it wasn't on speaker and pressing it up against his ear.

"Hey! Was wondering when you'd call, I've been streaming for like half an hour now." Sapnap greeted and Karl chuckled. "Yeah you nimrod, we had to make stops first. What've you gotten done on the server so far?" Karl asked.

"Not much, wanted to wait on you. Oh speaking of, say hi to chat! They've also been waiting." Sapnap said and Karl smiled, the nervousness he'd been feeling before melting away at the casualness of everything.

"Hey chat, sorry but I may not be able to stream this week! Blame Jimmy, he has us wasting away out here." Karl said. "Don't make it sound like I'm forcing you, Karl," Jimmy chirped in and Karl laughed.

"Yeah, no, guys, Jimmy is the absolute worse I swear, he's such a horrible boss." Karl joked and Jimmy just rolled his eyes, focusing on the road.

"Okay, so Karl, I talked to Fundy and he said he'd take everyone who wants to join the Butcher Army, I've joined, he wants to know if you're down, I gotta ask Quackity too." 

"Yeah of course I'm down. That's Fundy's whole taking down Technoblade plot right?" 

"Yeah, I'm gonna talk to Quackity now about that and what he wanted to say to me." "Yes! We're so gonna be in the next animatic!" Karl cheered and Sapnap laughed, a sound that made the butterflies in Karl's stomach flutter.

~~~

After two hours or so, Sapnap ended his stream, talking to Karl now about just anything.

"Anyone annoyed with me yet?" Sapnap asked him and Karl chuckled. "If anything, they'd be annoyed with me." Karl replied. "Are you guys annoyed with me yet?" Karl asked and everyone but Chandler said no.

"Well Chandler's opinion doesn't matter anyway," Karl joked and Sapnap chuckled. "Oh I never even bothered to ask, who else are you guys doing the video with? Or at least like, who else is in the car with you?" 

"Oh just me and the boys. Jimmy, Nolan, Chandler and my best homie Chris." Karl said and the sleeping man lazily thumbs up'ed at his name.

"...." Sapnap didn't respond for a moment and Karl furrowed his brows. "Sapnap?" He called and Sapnap cleared his throat. "Yeah sorry, was thinking about something. How much longer of the trip do you have left?" Sapnap asked and Karl groaned.

"Way too long. I'm not even tired or anything or else I'd just sleep the whole ride." Karl complained and Sapnap chuckled. "Well I don't have anything for school today so I'm down to just call all day if you want. I like talking with you." Sapnap said and Karl muted himself for a second, putting a hand to his chest and taking a second to breath and pretend like his heart didn't just skip a beat like eight times.

Chandler looked up from his game and turned to Karl. "You good man?" Chandler asked and the others in the car casted Karl a quick concerned glance. Karl nodded, red faced. "Yeah, just needed a moment for something." Karl said and Chandler raised an eyebrow but went back to playing his game.

"Sorry, muted for a second." Karl said and Sapnap chuckled. "It's all good." Sapnap reassured. "What's the video you guys are planning to do?" Sapnap asked.

"Jimmy won't tell us like the doofus he is. All I know is apparently Chandler knows and it's going to be exhausting." Karl complained and Jimmy chuckled at that as he drove.

"Are there any days you guys are going to be just chilling?" Sapnap asked. "Yeah, I think we're supposed to take a break on Wednesday." Karl replied and Sapnap hummed. "Any clue what hotel you're staying at?" 

"Just some AirBnB like right outside of Tulsa. Why?" Karl asked. "No reason, just wondering." Sapnap said with a smile in his voice and Karl hummed. "You're planning something." Karl said and Sapnap chuckled heartily.

"Is it that obvious? If my classes end early enough on Tuesday I was planning on crashing your guys' stay to see you." Sapnap confessed and Karl blushed at the words.

"Sapnap meeting up with me without saying 'only if gogy is there?' What world have I entered?" Karl joked. "Shut up, I just thought it'd be nice because we won't be too far apart! I could fly up and be there in like two hours instead of waiting a whole day, y'know?" Sapnap replied.

"How far did you plan this?" Karl asked. "Not much, you told me yesterday so I just looked stuff up and it just turns out things work for me." Spanap informed and Karl felt overwhelmingly warm now, shifting a bit in his seat to take off his hoodie. 

"Well sure man, I'd love to see you." Karl said and quickly muted, knowing full well the responses his friends would have to hearing him say that.

"AWWWWWW!" Nolan cooed. "OOOOOH!" Chandler teased like a kindergartener, Jimmy chiming in too. "Is that Sapnap?" Chris asked sleepily and the others laughed. "I hate you all." Karl grumbled and unmuted.

"Well great then, if everything works out we can also do like, a vlog type thing for the viewers, so it's not wasted content." Sapnap said and Karl nodded, face red from his friend's teasing. "Uh, yeah of course man."

The two continued to talk for another few hours about almost nothing, which was good because Karl had been dying of heat before while his friends mocked him. Eventually Jimmy pulled over for a lunch break and to switch off with Chandler to rest up a bit before continuing to drive that night. Karl had to hang up on Sapnap while they got food and switched seating around a bit.

Jimmy crawled into the back, pressing against the window comfortably, Chris in the middle and Noland taking the same seat he'd been in before. Karl was thankful to be offered the passenger spot, wanting the extra room so he didn't have to worry about elbowing Chris while grabbing a snack.

Another ten minutes of silent riding later and Karl's phone went off, the familiar electronic beeps played before words filled the car and Karl answered it quickly, face red when he saw Chandler smiling at him teasingly. "Is that Sapnap's ringtone?" Chris asked, leaning forward, full of energy from his earlier nap.

Karl turned even redder and answered it quickly. "Hey Sap," Karl greeted. "Sorry for calling I figure you guys had finished up by now." Sapnap said and Karl hummed. "YEah, no you're good," Karl stated.

"Put him on speaker!" Chris insisted and Sapnap laughed on the other end as Karl rolled his eyes, putting his friend on speaker and setting the phone on the arm rest in between him and Chandler.

"Hey Sapnap!" Chris greeted. ".... Hey Chris." Sapnap greeted, not entirely enthusiastic, unlike he'd been minutes before. Karl made a face at that but no one else seemed to pick up on it.

"Heard you've been talking to my man Karl for a good few hours." Chris said and Sapnap chuckled, a bit forced and Karl frowned. "Yeah, trying to not keep him bored on the hell ride." He joked.

"Sapnap, are you okay?" Karl asked, furrowing his brows. Chris looked up at him, confused until Sapnap spoke. "Yeah Jacobs, I'm fine." Sapnap said, voice chill and Chris laughed.

"Sapnap, if you're jealous, you should be, how dare you try and steal my best friend, punk? IT's fine if you only wanna steal him to kiss him though." Chris joked around and Karl turned red. "Chris!" He shouted and hit him with a sweater paw.

"I'm taking you off loudspeaker," Karl said, flustered and picking up his phone while Chandler and Chris behaved like toddlers, oohing and awwing at him.

Sapnap chuckled lightly as Karl pressed the phone against his ear. "It's all good man, Dream and George are the same." Sapnap replied and Karl breathed out a bit of a sigh at that. "Yeah, friends are the worst." Karl joked and laughed when Chris sputtered angrily.

"Hey, wanna play 20 questions?" Karl asked suddenly. "Are we in middle school? Sure." Sapnap agreed and Karl smiled, looking up at the car ceiling as he thought.

"Where'd Sapnap come from?" Karl asked.

"Oh! Dream came up with it actually. My old username was PandaPVP and when we were rebranding, Dream came up with Sapnap cause it's Pandas backwards." Sapnap explained and Karl paused from a moment, squinting.

"It's- It's not though." Karl said and Sapnap laughed. "Yeah, apparently 'Sadnap' was already taken so I'm cursed with Panpas." Sapnap joked and Karl smiled.

"Oh. Oh that also explains why Dream calls you Pandas sometimes." Karl said, realization lighting up his face. "Yeah, Bad does sometimes too. Anyway, my question...... uhhh. How'd you start working for Beast Man?" Sapnap asked.

Karl sat up straight in his chair and pointed at Chris accusingly despite Sapnap not being able to see."CHRIS STOLE ME!" Karl accused and Chris started to make indignant sounds as the others in the car laughed.

"What?" Sapnap asked through laughter. "Yeah, yeah, so basically I worked editing for Jimmy's brother, CJ, and CJ talked about how obviously amazing I am, so Jimmy wanted me to edit for him a bit and then Chris met me and was like 'mine,'." Karl explained and Chris turned red as everyone else laughed. "He wouldn't stop bothering Jimmy until I worked with them officially. Now CJ refuses to show Chris any of his other editors he thinks are cool.

"And after all that work, Chris hates me now, he likes his own son more than his best friend, how dare he." Karl fake complained and Chris shook his head at the others antics.

"Sapnap, I changed my mind, you can have him." Chris shouted a bit so the other could hear him. Karl gasped while everyone else laughed.

"Ignore him, my turn again. What're you in college for?" Karl asked. "Computer science, gotta make a living off of gaming somehow." Sapnap joked a bit and Karl nodded.

"Okay, my turn, how short are you really?" Sapnap asked. "Hey! I'm not short!" Karl yelled.

"He's a midget Sapnap," Jimmy said groggily from behind him and Karl turned in his seat to sweater paw slap him. "Jimmy is just a giant, I'm 5'11"." Karl claimed. 

"M-hm, sure, we'll go with that." Sapnap teased. "I am!" Karl insisted and Chandler tapped his shoulder.

"Hey man, hate to be that guy, but we're stuck in traffic right now and I'd appreciate some silence so I don't turn into a raging maniac." Chandler said, a bit sheepishly.

Karl nodded and went back to his call. "Hey Sapnap, I'm gonna have to go for a bit." Karl said. "Alright man, how long do you think, or should I just call back in an hour or something?" Sapnap asked and Karl looked up to see almost three miles of unmoving cars in front of them and groaned. "I'd say two hours, maybe three." Karl responded and Sapnap oof'ed.

"Alright, try and get some sleep, we've been on call for like six hours now." Sapnap said and Karl's eyes went wide. "Wait, for real?" Karl asked. "Yeah man, we've been on call since like, 7, it's 1." Sapnap explained. 

"Woah, okay, yeah, call you later. I'll sleep now." Karl said. "Alright, bye man, love ya." Sapnap said and hung up, yet again, before Karl could respond.

The older male turned red and curled up a bit in his chair, his face pressing against the cool glass as he pulled his sweater around him tighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I SEVERLY UNDERESTIMATED HOW MUCH DIALOG AND CONVERSATION ID HAVE TO WRITE. THEYRE LIKE 1/3 DONE WITH THE TRIP AHHHHH. I also have NO clue how to write the Mr Beast squad, why did I make them important to the story i- 
> 
> I plan for this to maybe have like ten chapters? I don't know. There'll be at least one more chapter of car ride, one centered around them filming, some pining, car ride back, pining, car ride back a and realization. Unless I change something while writing where I don't end up writing car ride back lol


	3. I'm Dreaming Of You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some dreams and arguing

It was cold, freezing, snow rushed around the air. Karl looked around as he stood in vast nothingness, white powdery snow laid everywhere, wind whipping around him violently.

He realized he was shaking and looked down, his hands an icy blue, not moving, he shakingly brought them to his cold body, pressed against his swirled sweater. Longer hair brushed in his eyes as he shivered. He tried to move his legs, step forward, but his legs were stiff, stuck deep in the snow. God he was cold, so, so cold.

He felt a chill rush through his body, freezing everything that hadn't been before. This coldness, he's never felt before. He's never felt like this, never seen this area before. He felt- he felt alone. He brought his hands up to his face to try and breathe warmth into them when his body started to shake more, like someone was pushing him. Karl looked around but couldn't see anyone, distant electronic beeps playing in the background.

"Karl," He heard someone say distantly, he turned towards the voice, frowning into the winter storm. "Sapnap?" He called back out.

Someone was shaking Karl to get up, he could hear garbled laughter and a song playing in the back. Karl sleepily batted the hand away and curled into himself more."Karl, I swear to god, this song has been on loops three times now, wake up." Someone said and Karl blinked his eyes open, registering what was happening and shivering a bit at the chillness of the car.

"Karl, I am going to through your phone out the window." Chandler's voice rang out, clear as day now and Karl sat up, vision clear as he looked around and realized Sapnap's ringtone was playing and turned red, snatching it out of Chandler's hand and answering it, ignoring Chris and Chandler's knowing laughter (Jimmy and Nolan were both passed out).

"Hey, sorry about that, I was sleeping." Karl responded and Sapnap laughed. "Yeah I figured, I apologize also cause I've called you like eight times now." Sapnap mumbled.

Karl smiled as his cheeks turned pink. "Hey it's no problem, we're out of traffic now it looks like, so I'm free again." Karl stated. "Awesome, Wait, do you have like a tablet or something? SAD-ist released another animatic." Sapnap said and Karl nodded, movements still sluggish as he reached under his seat to grab his tablet out, opening it up. "Is it as amazing as always?" Karl asked and Sapnap laughed.

"Bro, of course, she makes even our funny bits look dramatic." Sapnap responded and waited a few minutes as Karl watched it. "Holy hell, it's like a movie trailer for something new coming out I really want to see, but in reality this is just a minecraft roleplay." Karl joked and Sapnap laughed a bit. "Yeah it's pretty epic." he agreed and then awkward silence fell across the line as Sapnap shuffled on his end a bit.

"Hey uhm," Sapnap started and Karl hummed, playing with the edge of his sweater. "So, I don't know if I'll actually be able to fly down in time." Karl felt his heart drop and he frowned. "What, why not?" Karl asked, brows furrowed and Chandler glanced at his sad tone.

"Yeah, there's a tornado watch right now, they're saying it seems to be a big one, what with the cold front rushing in out of nowhere, and it may knock out power for a good few days and then people's flights will have all been backed up by then." Sapnap mumbled and Karl sighed a bit. "I understand I guess, weather sucks. I was just excited to see you and all." 

"Yeah, me too. But hey, at least now you won't have to experience the crushing disappointment that I don't live up to your expectations anymore." Sapnap joked. "Wait, what? Sapnap, that-" Sapnap cut Karl off.

"It's happened before man, no need to worry. I tend not to be what people expected. When Skeppy drove down it was pretty awkward." Sapnap confessed. "Sap- no," Karl huffed out, crossing his arm, almost angry. "Sap, you don't need to worry about not fitting my expectation of you. I don't really have any honestly, I just, I don't know how to say this." 

Karl moved in his seat a bit, bringing one of his legs up to his chest and moving part of the seatbelt behind him. 

"Sapnap, youre one of my best friends, okay?" Karl started, tone a bit angry at his friends self doubt, and Sapnap was silent. "I don't have these high expectations of you, because I know who you are. You're a college student who loves playing Minecraft with his friends. Who looks up to those friends and loves his fanbase. You're someone who loves your friends and expresses it easily. You're a dork who makes sex jokes anytime someone stands next to a crafting table. You're my friend Sapnap and I care for you. And always will no matter what." 

The car was dead silent and Karl blushed in realization that all his friends had just listened in, their conversations paused as they awaited for his reaction.

Sapnap was quiet too and Karl picked at his jeans while he waited for the other to respond.

"I-" Sapnap started and Karl waited anxiously. "Goddammit, Karl I hate you." Sapnap said and let out an airy laugh. "How do you do that?" 

"Do what?" Karl asked, intrigued, Chris trying to lean in enough to hear the conversation. 

"Just, you just fix everything by talking." Sapnap said and Karl chuckled. "It's a gift. But I seriously don't want you thinking I'd be disappointed meeting you, I'd be more upset and stuff if I knew I could've met up with you but you thought I'd hate it." 

"There's- there's another reason I don't want to meet up." Sapnap said and Karl listened carefully, not even noticing they were now over halfway done with their car ride.

"I'm- I dont- Karl I've wanted, Ive wanted to meet up before. I want to see you, so bad. Like, really, really bad." Sapnap confessed. "But I just- if we do meet up, I don't know if..... I don't know if I'll be able to just go back home. Part of me feels like I'll want to run away with you or something." 

Karl turned red and brought his hoodie up to cover his face, similar to how he'd reacted when getting tattooed.

"Why would you say that?" Karl shrieked out, voice muffled by fabric. "You can't just say stuff like that- God, Sap, I wanna meet you so bad. Stupid tornadoes messing up flight schedules." Karl said and didn't notice how Jimmy sat up straight, whispering to Chris.

"Let's, let's talk about something else now." Sapnap mumbled after a bit and Karl nodded, taking his face out of his hood and pressing the phone to his cheek again.

"We can come up with plot for the SMP?" Karl suggested. "Yeah yeah, cause Tommy has his whole exile thing, Bad has the whole blood vine thing, Tubbo has his president stuff but we have nothing planned." Sapnap said.

Karl hummed. "Okay so what if..." 

Four hours passed and they eventually ran out of ideas, but Karl was beaming. "Dude, we planned this out so well, we have to show Quackers and Dream to go over it but this is gonna be so rad." Karl said.

"The fans are gonna hate us," Sapnap joked and Karl smiled. "It's okay, we make up for it by being pretty." 

"Alright guys, dinner time!" Chandler called out as they pulled into a restaurant. "Okay Sapnap, I'll call you back later!" Karl said.

"Bye man-" "Love you!" Karl interrupted and hung up, grinning and stepping out of the car. 

"Ooooooh!" Chris teased as he stepped out, poking Karl's sides. "Omigod I hate you." Karl mumbled, pulling his mask onto his face as they walked into the restaurant.

"Why so rushed to say it?" Chris asked with a grin. "He normally says it and hangs up before I can respond so I pulled an Uno reverse." KArl explained and Chris hummed. "Surrre," He teased and Karl shoved his shoulder as they were seated.

"Oh, hey Karl, can I have Sapnap's phone number?" Jimmy asked suddenly and Karl squinted at him. "...Why?" Chris laughed at his defensive nature and Jimmy put his hands up in surrender.

"Hey, I wasn't trying to move in on your boyfriend, I just thought it'd be nice to have in case for any reason we have an emergency." Jimmy explained.

"First, we aren't dating-" "Yet." Karl turned red at Nolan's comment. "-And second, why would he be my emergency and not my brother or mom?" 

Jimmy looked at Chris, Chris shrugged and Chandler popped in. "Well because Sapnap seems to care the most, plus he'd be able to inform your friends and fans easier. Besides, don't ask your boss questions." Jimmy nodded. "What he said."

Karl rolled his eyes but texted Jimmy his friend's number anyway, then picked up a menu and decided on food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I pretend the SMP doesn't exist and everything is happy and totally fine yep. Nothing sad just happiness.
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys liked this chapter. Next chapter the car ride finally ends lolol. Then endless pining begins.


	4. My Friends Are The Worst Wingmen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some emotions get involved and the Mr Beast squad chat with the Dream Team and child.

Jimmy ordered Karl to sleep more on the way back before Sapnap called him because he needed to be well rested for filming the video. The slightly younger man simply groaned but obliged, being shoved in the back again between Chris and Chandler, Jimmy taking the wheel again and Nolan in passenger.

It took Karl around twenty minutes of trying to adjust himself to sleep comfortably. At some point Chris and Chandler groaned and moved their friend so Karl could lay across them. Karl fell asleep soon after that, Chris resting a hand in his friend's hair and Chandler resting one on his ankle as they scrolled through their phones.

Karl was cold though, he shivered in his spot and went to pull his sweater around him tighter, but his arms refused to move. He blurrily opened his eyes and shook his head as he watched the snow falling around him again.

He looked down to see the snow had now risen to his knees, the snowflakes fatter now and falling faster, making it almost impossible to see further ahead of him. Karl could feel his hair was heavy with the snow accumulating on it, his sweatshirt soaked through, icy cold. He reached up with ice cold blue fingers and brushed away the lighter, longer hair that fell in his eyes.

He looked down at his puffy sweatshirt and pulled it forward, his eyebrows furrowing at the color block pattern and swirl on it. He shivered again and put his hands in front of him, eyes widening when he saw his fingertips were black. His lungs pushed to get more air, his fingers and legs felt dead, frozen, he was sure his face was red.

He looked up at the sky and felt snowflakes falling on his face.

Why was he so cold? Why was it snowing? Why was that song playing on loop in the distance?

Karl looked down, squinting at the shadow of a figure approaching him.

"Sapnap?" He called out, voice shaky and disappearing in the air.

"Karl?" An undistinguishable voice called back.

"Sapnap?" Karl called back and then snow started falling into his eyes.

He closed his eyes and brought his hands up to rub out the snow, blinking a few times and looking around, sitting up when he realized he was awake again.

"Where are we?" Karl asked, groggy as he looked around and realized it was dark out. "Uhhhh, New Alluwe. We have like, an hour or so left." Jimmy informed and Karl sat up straight, pulling out his phone and paling at the twenty seven missed calls.

"Oh shoot, I forgot I silenced it at the diner." Karl mumbled and quickly dialed Sapnap. He pressed it up to his ear and sighed in relief when Sapnap picked up.

"Hey man, I am so sorry, Jimmy forced me to sleep." Karl mumbled. "Well you slept for a while so you should be all rested." Sapnap said, his own voice sounding tired and Karl pulled his phone away a bit to squint and check the time.

"Omigod it's 2 am? Jimmy, you said we'd be there by 1!" Karl whined, pulling the phone back. "Yeah, and then we got snacks, stopped for lunch and dinner and gas like 8 times. We'll be there by 3:30 the latest." Jimmy explained and Karl groaned.

"Sapnap, you don't mind calling right? I don't want to keep you from sleeping." He said. "I don't mind. George is early morning streaming right now so I might join in and we can crash it together. Or we can just sit and talk if you want?" Sapnap offered.

"Let's crash the honker's stream." Karl said and grinned and Sapnap laughed on the other end. "Alright!"

Sapnap spammed George on discord to add him to the call, Karl switching to discord also and getting added too, both of them asking him obnoxious and annoying questions and bugging George for half an hour, Tommy and Dream joining also.

Karl made sure to keep quieter as everyone besides Jimmy was knocked out, but Chris ended up waking up during him whisper yelling about STDs.

"What the fuck do you and your minecraft friends talk about?" Chris asked sleepily.

"Guys! Say hi to Chris! He just woke up!" Karl said, moving his phone to in between them.

"Karl are you in like a hotel?" George asked. "The car, actually! On our way to an Airbnb, but we still have like, less than an hour til we're there." Karl said.

"Isn't it like 1 am for you Big K?" Tommy asked. "Almost 3 am actually." Karl said and everyone on the call started screaming.

"Go to bed, Karl." Dream said. "Hypocrite! You're an hour ahead!" Karl accused. "Yeah, well I went to bed yesterday at like five so I've gotten sleep, thank you Karl." Dream said sassily and everyone laughed.

"Karl, you better be getting enough sleep." Sapnap said and George and Dream started cooing, Tommy pretending to vomit and Chris laughed as Karl's face turned red.

"Awe, Sap? Are you gonna propose in real life?" Chris teased and Karl shoved his face away, red. "Hell yeah man, gotta marry my homies." Sapnap bounced back.

"Sapnap is homie-sexual, you guys have heard it here first." Dream teased. "Is George muted?" 

"I was reading donos, Dream." George said, unmuting instantly. "And this dono just said you're stinky." 

"What?" Dream asked, increduously and everyone laughed again.

"Hey, George, you just passed a fortress like eight times you nimrod." Sapnap said and Karl laughed. 

"Hey, Karl, why do you sound like a fawking serial killer when you laugh?" Tommy spoke up.

"I don't sound like a serial killer." Karl pouted. "Tommy you made him sad." Chris said.

"Tommy shut up you pubescent little child. Can't even get unexiled, bitch." Sapnap went off and Dream and George started to laugh as Tommy spuutered.

"Sapnap what the fawk?" Tommy screamed. "Don't honking offend my beautiful man Karl like that. His laugh is what genuine joy sounds like." Sapnap cotinued and Karl hid his face in his sweatshirt again, making Chris cackle, waking up Nolan and Chandler.

"Ay! It's a party, we're all up!" Chris announced. "Who's everyone?" George asked. 

"Me, Karl, Chandler, Jimmy and Nolan." Chris informed. "AYYY MR. BEAST!" Tommy yelled and Jimmy audibly sighed from the front.

"Hi Tommy." He responded.

"Who's on call?" Chandler asked, rubbing his face. "George, Tommy, Dream and Sapnap." Karl said.

"OOOOOOH!" Chandler and Nolan teased in unison.

"Karlnap nation?" Dream asked and Chandler, Chris and Nolan grinned. "Karlnap nation!" They cheered. 

"I hate each and every one of you." Karl said simply. 

"Dream, why are you like the biggest shipper of all your friends? Like with me and Sap, and then Bad and Skeppy. Even you and George." Karl said.

"It's just how I be." Dream replied and Karl laughed.

"Who's the cuter duo of those two though?" Dream asked.

"Obviously us, Dre." George said.

"WHAT?" Sapnap yelled. "Sorry, the colorblindness must be getting to him chat, he obviously meant me and Karl." 

"I'm going to leave the call if you fuckers just keep flerting with each other." Tommy threatened.

Chris gasped. "Tommy are you homophobic?" Tommy started sputtering out defenses as everyone laughed at him.

"Alright boys! Hang up your call because we're almost there!" Jimmy announced and everyone cheered. 

"My 1000 hour car ride is finally over!" Karl informed Sapnap. "Don't be dramatic it was like 20." Jimmy said and Karl rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, I gotta go now." KArl said.

"Wait, private call real quick." Sapnap said and George, Dream and Chris all "ooh'ed" like fourth graders as Karl left the vc to join another, taking his call off of loudspeaker.

"Hey, what's up?" Karl asked, biting his lip as he felt his friends' eyes on him.

"So, I'm.... I'm trying to find a way to visit you but I don't know if I'll be able to this time." Sapnap said. Karl smiled. "It's fine, I wanna see you, but it's fine if we need to wait." Karl mumbled. "I understand."

"Yeah I know I just.....We've known each other for a bit now and I just.... I really wanna see you." Sapnap said and Karl turned red, his shoulders going up to his ears as he smiled. "I wanna see you too." Karl mumbled and there was silence between them for a moment, Chris and Chandler's conversation a dull murmur in the background.

"....God I hate long distance friendships," Sapnap said after a beat and Karl laughed airly. "Tell me about it, I can't believe I met up with Quackity before you." Karl said and Sapnap laughed a bit. "I've wanted to meet up with you all, but long distance and covid really just made it impossible this year." Sapnap said.

"Yeah this year was just honked up for us. But we'll be able to see each other in the future, hopefully sooner then later." Karl said. "I'd like to see you now," Sapnap confessed and Karl's breath hitched and he put a hand on his leg. "Yeah, me too." Karl mumbled.

Jimmy looked at him briefly and grinned at Chandler as Karl said his goodbyes and hung up, slapping his phone in anger when Sapnap beat him to the "I love you and hang up" bit they seemed to be keeping up with.

"Alright boys! We're at our destination! Unpack and get out!" Jimmy said and the four other men all broke free from the car, sighs of relief and groans of content leaving them as they stretched and smelled the chill cold air.

"Hell yeah! Time to not sleep for another 72 hours!" Chandler yelled and everyone groaned as they grabbed their bags and set up inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, car rides over, get ready for a "bit" of angst (if you read my fundywastaken stories you know what I mean by a bit) in the next chapters. Also, hm, seems like Jimmy might be planning something? Maybe, maybe not, who knows.
> 
> ALSO LATEST MR BEAST VIDEO WAS SO POG, QUACKITY JUDGE I LOVE TO SEE IT
> 
> As usual, check out my Twitter @sonayesul


	5. Challenges Are Challenging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl names his feelings and his dreams get worse. Also Mr. beast tortures him with an ice challenge but what else is new

"What's the challenge Jimmy?" Karl asked the next morning, all of them standing outside of a giant building. Jimmy pointed at the cameras that were recording. "So, Christmas is soon, yes? And Christmas is cold time, yes?" "We live in the south," Chris corrected.

"Okay, most places it's cold time, and it's been pretty chilly here. Anyway, we've gotten quite a few comments on one of our challenge videos we did. Comments like, 'oh we wanna see the rest of the gang do this,' 'how long could they all last?' and such. So, we're bringing back the 24 hour ice challenge, but changing it up a bit. " Jimmy explained.

"I don't like the sound of that." Karl mumbled and everyone laughed.

"Our next challenge we drove all the way down to Tulsa Oklahoma so we could rent out Winterfest Ice Skating! We paid four different ice artists to make four different ice houses. Each of you four will get their own ice house to stay in, and the last to leave their house gets 500 thousand dollars to give to their brother or sister!" Jimmy announced and everyone cheered for a bit.

Karl furrowed his brows a little but clapped his hands with the others. "Alright, challenge starts now, first to get to their house gets a free ten minute break they can cash in at any moment." Jimmy said and at that mention, Chandler shoved Chris and Nolan aside, rushing into the building as the others chased after him.

Karl sprinted through the ice rink and instead of rushing onto the ice like everyone else, he ran around the side and jumped over the edge, sliding to the side and collapsing in his ice house. "KARL WINS A TEN MINUTE BREAK!" Jimmy yelled as the other three tried to stand up, still slipping on the ice.

Karl cheered as he laid back on the floor, shivering a bit in the coldness. "What happens if we freeze to death?" Chandler asked, voice echoing throughout the rink.

"We have multiple medical professionals here on the side by. You guys can use your phones and anything else in there with you but you are not allowed to leave." Jimmy explained.

The first hour of the challenge was a bit boring, Jimmy would walk by with the camera guys and ask everyone a few questions, have the doctors come over and check on them and such before he let them return to the challenge.

"I am so incredibly cold." Karl announced and laughter filled the room. "Karl if you're cold you could leave, escape, go out into the warm air where the rest of us are." Jimmy teased.

"Is this karma?" Chris whined. "Yes, yes it is." Jimmy said simply and the camera crew erupted into laughter at the four simultaneous groans.

A few more very slow hours passed by, Karl not turning on his phone or even looking at it for fear it'd die like Chris' did. Chandler started to sing songs as horribly as he could, hoping to get the others to leave their houses. Nolan simply decided to take a nap to pass time.

Around the five minute mark, Karl was shivering on the floor as Jimmy came by with his hourly taunt.

"Mmmm, nice warm steak lunch we have over here." Jimmy said through the windows each house had. "Hey Karl, buddy, you good?" Jimmy had his normal light and teasing tone, but it had an underlay of concern as he looked at his friend shivering on the floor.

"Y-yeah, just y'know, cold." Karl chattered out. Jimmy nodded before he went back to teasing the others, trying to bribe them out with food and warmth. "WE AIN'T BREAKING JIMMY!" Chris yelled.

Karl decided he'd do what Nolan had and after getting checked up by the doctor, he curled up against the corner of the house, falling asleep to try and pass the time.

The cold air around him seemed to turn even colder, if that was even possible, as he shivered, leaning against the wall as he tried to find slumber.

When it seemed like the cold, frigid air would never leave, he groaned and opened his eyes, rolling his shoulders a bit and blinking when he was met with pure white.

It was the dream again, the same one as the night before, and the night before that. Karl quickly glanced down, snow covered up to his waist, the black that had covered his fingertips now spread across his hands, icy blue lines outlining his knuckles and Karl felt like if he tried to move his fingers, they'd simply break off.

He could hardly move his head, his shoulders hiked up to try and cover his neck, his sweatshirt soaked through, his light brown bangs falling heavy in his face. 

"Karl?" A voice called out in the very far distance, so far Karl almost missed it. He squinted out into the distance, a dark unidentifiable figure slowly approaching from the distance, closer than before.

"Heh-" Karl tried to greet the other, tried to call out but his voice cracked, breaking off into silence. Karl could feel tears in his eyes that slowly seemed to freeze, holding his eyes open. "Heh-" 

"Karl?" The voice again, distance electronic beeps sounded out. An unmistakable song rang out into the windy air as the snow picked up. "H-" Karl kept trying to call out, his eyes almost frozen in place, snow rising up to his chest.

"Karl?" A gentler voice called, the figure closer, the voice was more identifiable now. "Sah-" Karl tried to call out for Sapnap, the man he knew could save him.

"Sah- Sah-" Karl cried more, ice stinging his eyes as new tears pushed the ice away.

"My boys got his own ringtone-"

"Karl?" The voice was so close, so familiar, so warm.

Karl closed his eyes as it became too hard to keep them open, curling down in on himself more, shivering at the coldness.

"KARL!" He felt himself shake even more now in the frigid air and he forced his eyes open, being met with a concerned face and clear, blue icy walls.

"Oh jesus christ I thought you were in a coma." Jimmy said and fell back away from his friend, a doctor next to him, holding Karl's wrist as he took his pulse.

"You will need to step down from the challenge." The doctor informed and Karl shook his head. "No, no I- I'm not gonna quit." Karl said.

"Nolan is already eliminated, you won't be the first to lose if that helps?" Jimmy said and Karl shook his head. "I'll cash-sh in my ten minute break b-b-but nothings stopped me from a ch-challenge before." Karl insisted and the doctor sighed.

"You need to get your blood pumping." He informed and left his side to check on the others.

Jimmy started a timer on Karl's ten minute break as the other walked back and forth slowly. As much as he wanted to just sit in front of a heater, the doctor informed him it could send his body into shock changing temperatures that fast.

"Time?" Karl asked. "22 hours, you were out for a bit." Jimmy explained.

"Omigod I'm so cold." Chandler whined. Karl grinned. "Why don't you come out here? It's sooooo warm." Karl teased.

"I hate you." Chris said and Karl laughed as he was handed a blanket and headed back into his ice house.

"Okay, if you guys last ten more hours, we'll have to bring in drastic measures." Jimmy said. "Can you bring in drastic blankets?" Chandler asked.

"Legally I have to." Jimmy said and the others all sighed as they were handed a thick blanket, Karl was given another thinner blanket since he already had one.

Jimmy turned to the camera and explained how they paid for the ice houses and stuff and to like the video as Karl finally pulled out his phone, blinking when he realized his hands were not in fact black and unmovable.

He opened twitter for a bit and scrolled, liking his friends posts and retweeting a few BLM links before opening discord.

Karl Jacobs: trapped in an igloo, send entertainment.

He smiled as a few of his friends cheered him on, obviously understanding it was for a Mr. Beast video.

He noticed that Sapnap was online but not responding but didn't think much of it.

He texted Quackity for a bit, goofing around with him and watching a few youtube videos to distract himself.

"HOUR 25!" Jimmy announced and Karl looked up, being reminded of the cold.

"How'd you survive this long last time?" Chandler asked. "I'm hungry!"

"Hungry you say?" Jimmy asked and pulled out a cart of warm food. Karl groaned in hunger as he looked out the window.

"Okay, that's it." Chris stood up and left his ice house, running for food and Jimmy made a buzzer sound with his mouth. "CHRIS IS ELIMINATED! Two contestants remain!"

"Chris, prove you care about me and give me some food, please." Karl pleaded and Chris looked at Jimmy. "Is it against the rules?" Chris asked and Jimmy shook his head.

"Only because you had a near death moment earlier, otherwise I would not be this nice." Chris explained and Karl smiled thankfully at him.

"NOLAN!" Chandler called from his house. "Ehhhhhhh" Nolan teased but still handed Chandler a plate of warm food.

The two contestants hungrily ate their food and another boring hour passed.

Karl picked up his phone and decided he would try and dial Sapnap to ease him out of his boredom.

He dialed and waited, frowning when he was sent to voicemail. He tried a few more times and groaned.

"What?" Chandler asked from his house, 12 feet away.

"Sapnap's not answering my call and I'm boreeeeed." Karl whined and Jimmy laughed. "It is like 9 am for him. He probably just woke up." Jimmy explained and turned to say something to the camera that Karl couldn't quite hear.

"This is the worst challenge ever and I had to sit in gross candy for hours." Karl whined and stretched. "Workout time." Karl said and started aggressively doing jumping jacks on the ice, slipping only a minimal amount as the cameraman filmed him.

"Keep that blood flowing, let's go!" Karl said excitedly until he ran out of energy and sat down again.

He tried to dial Sapnap again after another long few hours and yet still no response.

Karl frowned again, his heart sinking strangely.

He was sure that it was fine, Sapnap was probably busy and couldn't call him.

But that didn't stop Karl's mind from wandering.

What if Sapnap was only calling him because of the car ride? What if their calls weren't going to be a regular thing?

Karl's chest felt heavy, he felt tears well up in his eyes and he bit his lip.

He didn't want to name the feeling before, if he named it it would make it all too real. And when things were real for him like this they only ended up hurting him.

But Karl was pretty sure he was in love with Sapnap, and he felt silly for getting so worked up over him not returning his call.

Maybe it had been the fact his sleep schedule had been screwed over in the past few days and that alone always gets him upset.

Maybe it was the cold air that was making him emotional.

Maybe it was the fact he'd been so excited to see Sapnap only for the other to not be able to.

Maybe it was the fact Karl had been excited to talk to him on call again only to be ignored.

Maybe it was all of these reasons.

"Karl, you okay?" Chris asked from the window and Karl rubbed his tears away. "Ye-yeah, sorry, was thinking about something." Karl mumbled and Chris looked at his friend again.

"Sapnap still not answering?" Chris asked and Karl nodded. "Yeah, I'm just..." Karl saw the camera and sniffled. "I'm so bored man. Mans could at least answer once." He said and Chris glanced over his shoulder and waved the camera away, motioning for Karl to scoot closer.

"What's really up?" Chris asked and Karl shrugged, shivering still.

"I don't know. He was answering my calls instantly all day yesterday and now, nothing. I know I'm being stupid and he's probably just sleeping or something but,.... I dunno." Karl confessed.

"He's not ignoring you Karl. He's probably just busy, but I understand why you're upset." Chris said and he saw Jimmy approaching with the camera man. "Stay strong man."

"Karrrl!" Jimmy greeted and Karl plastered on a smile, hoping his red face can be passed off by the cold. "32 hour mark, you cold?" 

"I've been cold since we got here, but I'm getting sort of used to it now." Karl said honestly but still shivered. "Do you think you'll get out anytime soon?" Jimmy asked.

"Only if Chandler does." Karl said with a grin and Jimmy grinned and laughed at him for a second. "Well, as always I do have a few tricks up my sleeves." Jimmy said and leaned on the ice window.

Karl just chuckled in response. "Would it be a video if you didn't? Hit me," Karl said and Jimmy nodded. "So you both get the option of either some nice warm food and a blanket, or a ten minute break." Jimmy said.

"Is that even a question? Food," Karl said and Jimmy laughed again. "Here's the catch though, You have to be able to reach your food from the door. Chandler also picked food so when I say go, you two both have to try and get that tray of food over there," Jimmy pointed over his shoulder at a tray of food on the floor at least five feet away from both of them. "And if either of your body ends up more than halfway out, you're out."

Karl looked at the food and then at Jimmy. "I hate you." He said as he shivered, grabbing the blanket that was handed to him.

"Alright, go!" Karl pressed himself against his ice door, sticking his leg out to try and pull it over, but that soon failed. Chandler was laying on his stomach, his legs in his ice house but his arms reaching out for the tray and also failing.

Karl turned and grabbed his blankets, tying them together and grabbing a chunk of ice that sat in the corner. He tied it to the end of the blanket and threw it, trying to use it like a rake and drag the tray over. He leaned against the doorway, balancing as he used his whole body to drag the blankets back.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Chandler yelled, watching Karl's strat and the other burst out laughing, leaning forward a bit more and keeping his balance, focusing hard, hardly paying any mind to other sounds that filled the air.

My boy's got his own ringtone-

Karl flinched at the sudden invasion of lyrics and lost his balance, fall flat on the ice before him and Chandler cheered as Jimmy announced his victory.

Karl fumbled through his jeans and pulled out his phone.

"Mother honker you made me lose the challenge!" Karl yelled at Sapnap as his friends laughed at him. 

"You guys are still doing that?" Sapnap asked. "Not anymore because I just lost!" Karl whined, sitting up on the icy floor, eating the food as Jimmy made the video outro.

"Sorry, I saw you had called and I just got internet access again." Sapnap apologized and Karl furrowed his eyebrows.

"Why? Where were you?" Karl asked. "Nowhere, internet went down because of the tornadoes. Anyway, I just wanted to say I didn't mean to miss your calls but I can't exactly call right now, but I didn't want you thinking I hated you or anything, yeah?" Sapnap said.

Karl felt his face grow warm, glad it was already rosy red from the cold and felt his heart pound a bit harder at the amount of catre Sapnap put in his words. "Yeah, of course man. I'll call you later?" Karl said.

"Yeah, see you later Love-"

"Love you bye!" Karl said quickly and hung up, laughing to himself as he stood up now, running to his friend's arms for warmth.

"So Karl, Is that now officially 2 million you've lost?" Jimmy asked as Karl wrapped himself around Chris and Chandler's bodies, stealing the little warmth they had. "Shut up." Karl grumbled and everyone laughed as they cleaned up to go back to the AirBnb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LITERALY WAITING ON QUACKITY TO START STREAMING, WHY HASNT HE YET ITS SO LATE.
> 
> Anyway how you guys enjoyed this chapter! Sorry not much happened but I needed to write the challenge and didn't want it to be bland so I added the dream but shhhh idk how it turned out so feedback is good lol!
> 
> Twitter: @sonayesul  
> Instagram: @sonayesul  
> Tiktok: @literally_chaos  
> Discord: Literally_Chaos#4227


	6. Suprise Shawty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some soft moments between the two after a tiring challenge and a surprise.

Karl flopped backwards onto the bed, still cold and shivering. "You gonna sleep?" Chris asked from the door and Karl nodded. "I'm so cold and so tired man, I'm going to sleep forever." Karl said as he buried under the covers.

Chris just laughed and nodded.

"Alright, wake up in time for breakfast but other than that, knock yourself out." Chris said and left to go make a goodnight call to Tucker and Katie.

Karl laid on the bed for a moment, staring at the ceiling and frowning. Each time he went to sleep, his dream became weirder, he became more trapped, closer to death. He doesn't know what it meant but he was a little bit scared honestly. But he was also so very tired.

Just as he felt his eyes falling shut, an oh so ever familiar ringtone rang out and Karl groaned and pulled out his phone. "Hey Sap." Karl greeted, rubbing his eyes.

"Is this a bad time? Sorry." Sapnap apologized at his tired voice and Karl hummed. "No, it's fine." Karl said and a soft smiled stretched across his features.

"I'll talk to you any day" Karl said and he heard Sapnap hit something for a moment before the other said "Same here." cooly.

Karl giggled a bit and rolled over onto his side. "Any changes in plans for visiting?" Karl asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately no, I'm sorry but we'll probably have to wait like another month before meeting up." Sapnap said, voice a little too happy for the sad news but Karl's sleep deprived mind thought nothing of it.

"Well poop." Karl said. "Well, anyways, how was your day? You said you were busy." 

"Oh, yeah. I got some new PC stuff, Dream bought me a lot of new stuff for Christmas and shiz so I was working on setting that up and buying new stuff that I didn't already own." Sapnap said.

"You got a sick gamer set up now." Karl said, voice abit sleepy as he rested into his pillow.

"Yeah, now I'm even more official than I was before. I have the same Mic that Bad has so it should be all good. And Dream bought me a face cam since everyone kept making fun of my sucky quality." Sapnap said and Karl perked up a bit.

"So I get to see your gorgeous face in HD now?" Karl said with a teasing tone. "Yeah of course baby." Sapnap responded and Karl turned red, pulling his blanket over his face.

"Your old camera was pretty bad, I can't even tell what color your eyes are." Karl said and Sapnap scoffed. "It wasn't that bad quality." Sapnap replied.

"No really it was, your camera fuzzed everything, I legit don't know what color your eyes are." Karl deadpanned.

"Oh, well they're dark brown." Sapnap said. "Oh, pretty," Karl said, the sleepiness catching up with him and unfiltering his words.

"Uh, yeah," Sapnap mumbled a bit. " _θεός_." 

Karl blinked. "What?" "What?" Sapnap repeated. "You said something, thay-osh?" Karl asked, brows furrowed. "I dunno, I might've misheard I'm sleepy."

"Oh, uh, no it was greek." Sapnap said. 

"Greek? You know greek?" Karl asked, voice soft with fatigue.

"Yeah, I'm semi-fluent." Sapnap said, a bit flustered.

"Wait, can you say something for me in greek?" Karl asked.

"Like what?"

"A song? Can you sing me a song?" Karl asked.

"I only know lullabies." Sapnap stated. "That's okay, I wanna hear." Karl said.

"Okay, uh _, Νάνι νάνι το παιδί_ ," Sapnap's voice was foreign as it spoke the language, adopting a new accent as he sang softly into Karl's ear. " _Όσο να 'ποκοιμηθεί, Όσο να 'ρθει η μάνα του,_ " Karl smiled to himself and leaned more into his pillow, moving his phone so his face laid on it instead of him having to hold it, feeling his energy escape him. 

" _Να του φέρει λούλουδα, Ωρέ, να του φέρει λούλουδα,_ " Karl closed his eyes with a soft smile, letting out a soft hum as Sapnap's voice started to soften more. " _Μόσχος και γαρούφαλα._ "

Karl hardly remembered falling asleep. He remembered waking up to a text message that said " **You snore btw <3**" from Sapnap and turning red as he picked up his phone. 

He opened it and turned red when he saw their call had lasted three hours, meaning Sapnap sat on call for another two hours after Karl fell asleep.

He then checked the time and groaned, pulling himself out of bed seeing as it was 9 am.

"He has arisen!" Chandler announced when Karl dragged himself into the kitchen for food and everyone else laughed.

"Listen, I gotta go pick some stuff up for editing videos tomorrow, I need someone to come for the ride with me." Jimmy said and shared a look with Chris, Chandler and Nolan briefly.

"NOT IT!" The three of them yelled and Karl blinked. "Aw what, I wanted to sleep all day. and stream all night" Karl complained.

"You slept yesterday and can still stream tonight, promise." Jimmy pointed out. "And you're the last person so you have to now."

"Fiiiiiine," Karl whined and grabbed some food.

A few hours later and Karl was leaning against the car window as Jimmy drove through town.

"What do we have everything now?" Karl asked and Jimmy pulled out a list. "We got the new USB, the camera wire, the SD card for one of the cameras. We need to stop and get Bailey and Ethan snacks because they refuse to work hungry and I need to make one more stop after." 

Karl nodded. "For what?" Karl asked after a moment and Jimmy just shrugged. "Nothing big, don't worry. It won't take long."

Karl didn't think much of it as Jimmy pulled into a gas station, filling up on gas and coming back with a few shopping bags of snacks.

He didn't think much of it as they started to enter a more populated area.

He didn't think much of it as they pulled into the airport.

"Alright, out." Jimmy said, unbuckling and then Karl looked around, knitting his eyebrows.

"What, why?" Karl asked as he got out. "Picking up the last thing." Jimmy said like it was obvious, walking into the airport and Karl jogged to keep up with him.

"What's the last thing? I thought you said we were saving money by not flying, so it's not plane tickets." Karl stated and Jimmy said nothing as he stood in the lobby, looking around at signs and then at his watch. Karl got even more confused when Jimmy pulled out his camera and started filming.

"What's the last thing Jimmy?" Karl asked and Jimmy grinned. "Should be here soon." He said and pointed the camera at him. "Honestly surprised you haven't figured it out yet. You're what you would say, a nimrod." 

"Hey! What's that even supposed to-" Karl's words died in his mouth when he saw someone moving out of the corner of his eyes. "Wha-" "KARL!" Someone yelled and Karl felt his body moving on his own, moving forward and carrying him to the other person, who wrapped him up in a hug instantly.

"Sapnap!" Karl yelled, hugging his friend tightly. "Omigod! You said all flights were down!"

"They were! Jimmy sent me money for a train to a different airport and bought me a ticket from there to here!" Sapnap said and Karl released himself from the hug to look at his boss. "You did that?" Karl asked and Jimmy smiled, lowering his camera a bit.

"You work hard Karl, and you were really upset that you wouldn't be able to meet him so I wanted to pay you back." Jimmy said and Karl smiled at him with happy tears in his eyes. "Jimmy, you're the man. Thank you so much." Karl said and he nodded his head to the car. 

"We do have to go back to the AirBnb now. Sapnap is going to be staying until we leave on Saturday." Jimmy said and Karl smiled, hugging Sapnap again, the warmth of his friend providing comfort as Sapnap rubbed his back.

Karl helped Sapnap pack his stuff into Jimmy's car and climbed into the back with him, both of them chatting about nothing and everything as they headed back to where they were staying.

Chris, Chandler and Nolan all said hi to Sapnap but didn't seem surprised at his appearance.

"Did you all know?" Karl asked and Chris nodded. "It was my idea originally." Chris said and Karl rushed and hugged him too. "Man you're the best." Karl said. "Thanks," Chris said and dropped his voice to a whisper. "Now go get him tiger." 

Karl turned red and pulled away, dragging Sapnap up to his room to set his things in (Jimmy said it was his job to get Sapnap here, Karl's job to figure out where he was staying and Karl had decided he'd set up a spot for him to sleep on the floor and Sapnap could take his bed) and got things ready for a stream.

"Karl Jacobs streaming not at ungodly hours pog?" Karl joked as he set up his pc that he'd packed, making sure everything was plugged in, having already had done this the last time he'd been at an AirBnb.

"We playing on the SMP?" Sapnap asked, scooching his chair close and Karl smiled, not yet being able to actually comprehend that Sapnap was here.

"Yeah! Let's cause chaos!" Karl said and finished plugging everything in, sitting up and reaching forward to adjust his mic, hand brushing against Sapnap's and turning a bit red at the contact. 

"We gotta play the popping off playlist for intro." Karl said and started up in stream labs, turning everything on and starting songs, grinning to himself as he added a song he knows way too well now.

Karl felt giddy with excitement as Sapnap also smiled next to him, both not saying anything as Karl's mic was still on.

"Oh Leah thank you for the five gifted tier ones!" Karl thanked and flapped his arms a bit in excitement, his sweater flapping with him and Sapnap had the softest smile on his face as Karl turned to look at him.

"Chat!" Karl Yelled, pausing his music. "Do I have a treat for you!" He switched cams, grinning at his camera and Sapnap waved at the viewers.

Karl laughed as the chat started to explode and Sapnap covered his mouth a bit as he laughed too. "Guys, no please, stop, this is my travel PC it can't handle this." Karl laughed as he lowered his res on his computer to try and save it.

"Chat!" Karl yelled and Sapnap leaned away from the camera, laughing into his hands.

"Okay, sorry to do this, we need sub only or else everything is going to break." Karl said and switched chat log. "Alright!!! As you may notice! A super special epic someone is here today!..... It's me, hi I'm Karl!" 

Sapnap laughed and shoved his shoulder a bit and Karl felt his heart explode just a bit in his chest at the touch. "Nimrod." Sapnap said, voice soft and caring and Karl wanted to melt but remembered he was streaming.

"Oh yeah, Sapnap is here too." Karl said and erupted into more laughter as the other sputtered half offended sounds. Karl glanced at chat to see it was still flying by, even on sub only mod.

One message stuck out to him instantly.

**GianaBlewer: They're so cute I can't**

Karl turned even redder at that but focused on streaming. "So! We're gonna be going on the SMP for a bit! But I wanted to do like I did when Alex was here and answer a few questions!" Karl said and Sapnap nodded.

"So ask away your questions!" Karl said and smiled as chat exploded again. 

Karl's heart pounded in his chest as Sapnap smiled and laughed and answered some of the comments.

His face heat up and turned red everytime Sapnap jokingly flirted with him for plot purposes on the SMP.

Karl forgot how to breathe for a good minute when Sapnap leaned against him dramatically, teasing Quackity for not being there with them.

By the end of the stream, Karl's emotions were a mess and he felt like five seconds away from just melting into Sapnap and staying there forever.

Karl could hardly last a four hour stream, he had no clue how he was going to survive the next four days. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This was a cute chapter right? Would be a shame if, uh, Karl was to become extremely insecure about what Sapnap thinks about him and any actions he makes around the other, right?
> 
> I got stuff to make a Karl hoodie I'm gonna be so pog
> 
> (Follow me on stuff if you wanna talk or see other content I create!  
> Art insta & Twitter @sonayesul (both IG and twt)  
> Cosplay tiktok & Insta @Literally_Chaos (both TT and IG))


	7. In Your Arms, I'll Be Fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl has a nightmae

Once they'd all eaten dinner they'd separated off, Karl and Sapnap hogging the couch as they watched movies, Chris claiming Nolan's room so he could call Tucker in peace to say goodnight to him, Chandler and Jimmy disappearing to who knows where and Nolan starting with his editing section.

Karl currently sat a few inches away from Sapnap as _Ratatouille_ played because Karl complained until Sapnap agreed to watch it.

Karl fiddled with his fingers and the sleeves of his hoodie, resisting the urge to curl into Sapnap and just lay there until he fell asleep.

Sapnap leaned into the couch, laughing with the movie, making jokes and Karl tried to ease up, tried to relax but it was hard.

Everything in his body wanted to reach out and grab Sapnap, hug him, talk to him like a normal person, confess the feelings that tumbled in his stomach the past few days, hold him tight and never let go.

But Karl didn't allow himself to, scared of what Sapnap would think, scared it would take away their friendship, scared it would ruin everything.

Sure Sapnap flirted, but only ever when they had an audience, or when it was late at night and neither had a filter. 

Sure Sapnap would probably be a nice friend and kindly turn Karl down, and still be friends with him.

Sure Sapnap has told Karl he's one of his closest friends.

But that didn't stop the fear.

It didn't stop how scared Karl was.

So instead Karl sat, with a smile forced on his lips as he watched his favorite movie with his favorite person.

Chris came in and kicked them out and they escaped to the room, sitting on the floor and laughing to each other as they told stories and jokes.

"And so he just kept saying- over and over again, _Sean, this is your house!_ " Karl said, laughing as he spoke and Sapnap laughed too. "And it didn't even make the final cut!"

Sapnap's laugh rang out through the room and if it wasn't for how funny Karl was finding everything, he would've blushed.

"In the last manhunt, Dream left this out because it wasn't long enough to be entertaining, but there was a run where George tried to seduce Dream into giving away his location and-" Sapnap covered his mouth from how hard he was laughing and Karl watched with wide eyes and a big toothy smile.

"And George said- He said," Sapnap suddenly adapted a very horribly done british accent as he spoke. "" _Are you a diamond pickaxe? Because I'm harder than obsidian."_ And then- and then Dream jumped right into a lava pit. Ju-ju-just to avoid him."

Karl and Sapnap erupted into more laughter and Sapnap placed a hand on Karl's knee so he didn't fall over.

Karl instinctively flinched away from the sudden touch and Sapnap withdrew his hand, not saying a word as they moved on and started telling another story.

The atmosphere had changed though, the lighthearted and fun environment quickly turned stale, Karl felt like Sapnap walking on eggshells now, making sure his hands and legs stayed far away from Karl as to not bother him again and Karl yearning for the touch again.

He doesn't even know why he flinched away. Maybe because it was sudden? Maybe because he was scared? He doesn't know, but he wants to take it back, he wants to have placed his own hand over Sapnap's.

Quickly it became too late for them to stay up laughing, especially considering that the other four in the AirBnb were trying to sleep or edit in peace now.

Karl set up the air mattress in the corner of the room, far from the bed Sapnap was curled up in. Sapnap said he didn't mind sleeping on the air mattress but Karl insisted his comfort came before his. Sapnap then added he didn't mind sharing the bed and Karl had turned red, saying he kicked in his sleep so it'd be better if he just laid in his own bed and Sapnap begrudingly let it go.

Karl laidon his bed, staring at the ceiling as Sapnap tiredly rambled about some anime he was watching.

"And people have been dissing the new season's art style but I actually really like it. Also so much time was spent animating it and a lot of effort went into it so I just, well, y'know how fanbases are." Sapnap said quietly and Karl hummed.

"Completely understood, good sir." Karl said with a goofy, sleep deprived smile and Sapnap let out a tiny giggle at that. "Well, I think I'm going to actually go to sleep now." Sapnap said and Karl nodded, turning to his side to rest as well.

"Same here, goodnight." Karl said. "Goodnight, Love you man." Sapnap said and Karl flushed. "Love you too." Sapnap mumbled something after but Karl was too tired to hear, falling asleep almost instantly.

He heard wind whistling past his ears, the room dropping temparutre fast and Karl opened his eyes again, scared to see his familiar icy cold dream.

He opened his eyes and was met with pitch black. He blinked a few times and nothing changed. He was stuck, he couldn't move, he was cold, he was-

**Oh god.**

He was buried.

He was buried in the snow.

Karl tried to look up, move his head, but there was too much weight on top of him, too much pressure above him to move.

Karl was scared.

His body was numb, places on him burning to his surprise.

His fingers felt like white hot fire. Like his arms were melting in the snow.

He found his could move his mouth a bit and tried to screaming, his voice only coming out in broken rasps.

"Sah-" Karl tried screaming but his throat felt like an ice block. "SAH-"

And again he heard his ringtone. Again he tried to move. Again he tried to scream.

He was hyperventilating. 

_Calm down, Karl._

_Calm down, it's just a dream you're fine._

But he was abandoned.

He was alone, he was stuck, he couldn't move, he was cold, he couldn't speak, he was frozen, he was burning, he was going to die.

Karl tried to cry out again, feeling icy tears drip down his face as he tried to move, snow filling his mouth as he opened his mouth wider to scream.

He was shivering so much, he was so cold, so very cold.

He shivered, he shook to try and gain back warmth.

He was shaking so hard and kept blinking his eyes, tears falling in fear, in sadness.

He kept blinking, trying to get the snow out of his eyes, rid of his tears.

His ears were buzzing, Sapnap's ringtone playing full blast in his ears.

He needed to get out-

He needed to escape, be free, see light.

He blinked his eyes again, shivering harshly and was met with more than pitch darkness, a concerned face appearing in his view.

Karl pulled away, surprised to find he cold move again and looked around.

He was in the Airbnb room again, not stuck a foot under in snow.

He was warm, not freezing, not burning, not melting.

He was-

Oh he was still crying.

"Karl?" Sapnap's voice broke through, the only thing Karl could hear. No music was playing.

Karl looked at him with wide teary eyes, shaking a bit still.

"Karl," Sapnap reached his hand froward but it froze halfway, dropping to his lap as he scanned Karl over a bit.

"Karl, are you okay?" Sapnap asked and Karl opened his mouth to speak but closed it again.

He needed-

He wanted-

Karl let a sob rip its way out of his throat and he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Sapnap and sobbing into him.

Shocked, Sapnap wrapped his arms aorund him tenderly, softly patting his back.

Karl sobbed into his shoulders, shaking, crying, sniffling, letting it all out.

"Karl, what happened?" Sapnap asked, voice soft and Karl forced himself to pull away once he'd gathered himself.

"I-" Karl wiped his tears away, playing with his sweater he'd fallen asleep in. "Just nightmares."

"Just? Karl you're wrecked right now, what happened?" Sapnap asked and Karl breathed in shakingly.

"I was-" He inhaled slowly. "I was stuck, under snow, all froz-frozen and I couldn't move an-and I was scared."

"Oh," Sapnap said and furrowed his brows for a moment before shaking his head. "Well, hey, you're okay now, right?"

Karl paused and shrugged. "Each night I-I have the same dr-dream but tonight it was the wor-worst." Karl was breathing heavily still, eyes a bit zoned out and shaking, tears still falling.

"Karl," Sapnap's voice came out a bit more firm this time and Karl looked at him, squinting a bit. "You're having a panic attack."

Karl shook his head. "N-No this just- just happens sometimes." Karl sobbed a bit.

Sapnap shook his head. "You're having a panic attack, I need you to pay attention to me, okay? Please look at me." Sapnap's voice was firm, but there was still a certain softeness to it and underlying care.

Karl forced himself to lift his head a bit more and actually look at Sapnap, eyes open as gray eyes met brown ones.

"Okay, good, now breathe with me, okay, big deep breath in," Sapnap inhaled dramatically for show and Karl shakingly followed. "Hold. And release."

Sapnap had him do it a few times before Karl's breathing finally slowed a bit and Sapnap reached his hand forward again. "Can I hold your hand? It might help ground you a bit." Sapnap said and Karl quickly reached his own forward, interlacing their fingers and Karl squeezed his hand for a second.

Sapnap smiled softly at him and nodded. "Okay, okay good, you're doing good." Sapnap said. "Just keep looking in my eyes until you're sure you're fine." Karl nodded a bit and kept taking deep breaths, squeezing Sapnap's hand every now and then.

"Your eyes really are brown." Karl said after around ten minutes had passed and Sapnap smiled. "Told you." He replied simply and Karl chuckled softly, laughter wet with his past shed tears.

"Are you okay now?" Sapnap asked and Karl nodded. Sapnap sat a bit further now, still holding Karl's hand.

"You said this happens every night?" Sapnap asked and Karl shook his head. "No, uh, only occasionally, and a lot more recently." Karl mumbled.

"Any idea why?" Another head shake and Sapnap nodded.

"Do you think you'll be able to go back to sleep? It's only 2 am." Sapnap asked and Karl shrugged.

"I dunno, most times I can't." Karl mumbled and Sapnap thought for a second. "You can cuddle with me? Sometimes being next to another person helps, especially with nightmares and stuff."

Karl felt panic rising in his chest again. Sleeping next to Sapnap- cuddling-

He doesn't know. He _wants_ to, he really does, but-

He's afraid he might say something.

Karl furrowed his brows, looking down a bit and biting his lip as he thought.

It probably-

He'd probably be fine for just a few hours, right?

Nothing too bad could happen?

Hesitantly, Karl nodded and Sapnap nodded back, moving to stand up.

Karl forced himself to also stand up, grabbing his pillow and awkwardly shuffling over to the bed, where Sapnap had teleported to apparently, already underneath the blanket.

Sapnap opened his arms and Karl set his pillow down, slowly sitting on the bed so his back faced Sapnap.

Sapnap pulled him down, wrapping his arms around him and Karl felt a strange warmth fill his body as Sapnap held him with such care.

Karl fell asleep a lot faster than he thought, no worries, no anxieties, not even any more nightmares attacking him through the night.

Just a feeling of being loved and cared for as he leaned back into Sapnap's embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO MANY OF YOU KEPT SAYING IT WAS CUTE AN I WAS LIKE "I'm the angst Lord, I can't have any slow burn cute fics heh?" SO HERE YOU GO!
> 
> Heheh, for real though, please e nice in the comments, i know they were probably jokes but a few threatened me if I hurt Karl and i did so please be nice absbknsl
> 
> Also I keep getting college scholarship messages and it's so weird I have so many options now.
> 
> Have a nice day! Check out my socials!
> 
> Tiktok: Literally_Chaos (cosplay)  
> Instagram: Literally_Chaos (cosplay)  
> Instagram: Sonayesul (art)  
> Twitter: sonayesul (art and spam)  
> Discord: Literally_Chaos#4227 (only friend if you wanna be added to me discord server I'm awk one on one)


	8. The Urge To Tell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have breakfast and edit some videos

Karl woke up, well rested, the sound of muffled laughter filling his ears, someone's face pressed into his neck, arms holding him carefully, soft snoring sounds filling the air.

Karl begrudgingly opened his eyes and looked forward at the bedroom door, turning red when he saw Chandler and Chris standing in it, covering their mouths.

Karl shot up, very suddenly awake and flushed up to his ears, grabbing his pillow and chucking it at them. "Honk off!" He whisper yelled, very aware of the still sleeping man next to him. 

Chris held up his phone with a sly grin and Karl jumped out of the bed, Chris' eyes widening and he broke out into a sprint as Karl chased after.

"What did you do!?" Karl yelled as Chandler fell to the ground, laughing at the two running. "Took some nice pictures I think you'll like!" Chris called back over his shoulder.

"Guys it's too early for this." Jimmy said, popping his head out of the room he'd been staying in. 

"CHRIS GIVE ME THE PHONE!" Karl screamed as he raced after Chris and Chris turned. "Chandler catch!" Chris tossed his phone to the taller boy who quickly caught it and held it above Karl's head.

Karl jumped up and tried to grab it, red faced, but holding back his own laughter. "I hate you!" Karl stated as he kept trying to jump and grab the phone.

"What's happened now?" Jimmy asked, nowp involved with the mess as he reached up and grabbed the phone from Chandler, handing it to Karl.

"Karl and his mans were cuddling and I took pics and now he's mad." Chris explained. "He's not my 'mans'." Karl huffed and Chris shrugged. "Well you both like each other so same thing. Anyway, I can send you the pics if you want." 

Karl's ears turned red and he opened Chris' phone, hunching in on himself as Chris tried to grab at his phone again and he opened up gallery.

He flushed fully now when he looked at the multiple photos Chris had taken.

Sapnap had his face buried in Karl's hair and neck, a soft smile plastered across his features. Karl curled back into Sapnap, hair covering his eyes and also smiling. They looked domestic, wholesome.... in love.

Karl was so flustered by the image that he'd let his guard down and Chris reached around, snatching his phone back.

"I'll send them to you." Chris said and Karl opened his mouth but then Nolan and Sapnap emerged to. "Why is everyone yelling, what the fuck." Sapnap's voice was heavy with sleep. 

"Chris was bullying me." Karl said at the same time that Chris said "Karl is being a bitch."

Sapnap chuckled and stretched a bit. "Don't diss Karl like that he tries his best." Sapnap said and Chris just chuckled.

"Since we're all up, you guys want to go get breakfast?" Jimmy asked and everyone cheered as Jimmy led them to the car.

"Karl, sit on Chris' lap." Jimmy stated as they packed in. "Why do I always have to sit on people's laps?" Karl whined.

"Because you're the smallest." Jimmy stated simply and Karl rolled his eyes. "Technically right now Sapnap and Nolan are shorter."

"I'm not sitting on anyone's lap." Nolan said without missing a beat. "And I _shouldn't_ sit on anyone's lap." Sapnap said after.

"Why Chris though, I crush him." Karl said. "Sit on Sapnap's lap then." Chris said and winked as he got into the car.

"No!" Karl whined as the others all got in, crossing his arms outside of it. "I don't wanna sit on _anyone's_ lap."

"I don't care." Sapnap said and Karl really needed to stop blushing at every minor thing that happened.

"I'm hungry, get in the car." Chandler said and Karl rolled his eyes, finally giving in and crawling in, seating himself on Sapnap's lap.

Sapnap rested his hands on Karl's waist as they started up the car and Karl had to force himself not to freeze in his hold.

As he sat quietly in Sapnap's lap, he started to realize he was, in fact, still very sleepy from not getting too much sleep.

Sapnap rubbed a circle on his hip a bit and leaned up to whisper, the moment feeling very intimate to Karl. "You okay?" Sapnap's breath tickled Karl's ear and he just nodded.

"Tired 's all." Karl mumbled. Sapnap hummed for a second and Karl felt warmth spread through his body. "I'm fine if you wanna take a quick nap, Jimmy said it'd be 20 minutes." Sapnap said, voice soft.

Karl leaned back into Sapnap's hold and closed his eyes, letting his sleep take over him instead of worrying about the turmoil of emotions swirling in his head.

For the first time in a few days, he slept without any dreams, no ice, no snow, nothing, nothing tried to wake up him again except for the sudden stop of the car.

Karl, groggily, sat up and rubbed sleep out of his eyes. "We're here." Sapnap said, a soft smile on his face and Karl's feelings finally caught up to him as he opened the door and climbed off of Sapnap's lap.

Soon they were all squeezed into one booth, ordering food and joking around.

Karl sat pressed against a wall next to Chris with Nolan on Chris' other side, Sapnap sat across him with Chandler and then Jimmy on his free side.

"PANCAKES! PANCAKES! PANCAKES!" Karl and Chris chanted as they waited for their food to arrive, the other laughing at their antics.

"Waffles are superior." Sapnap stated and Karl gasped. "I'm going to divorce you in minecraft." Karl said, eyes wide. 

"He's right though." Chandler said and Karl a hand on his chest, leaning back and sinking down as if he was shot. "The betrayal!" Karl yelled.

"Karl, it's not a betrayal if we think a different breakfast food is better." Sapnap stated and Karl jokingly glared, pulling Chris close and whispering in his ear. "Maybe if we duel them they'll understand." Karl whispered into his best friend's ear.

"I am almost certain they'd crush us." Chris whispered back and then they both erupted into giggles. When Karl looked back up, Sapnap had a strange reaction, his face darkened with an unnamed emotion, staring at Chris before shaking it off.

"What are you two conspiring about?" Chandler asked, skeptical and Karl smiled innocently. "Nothing!" He said and giggled more.

Karl leaned into Chris as the two just laughed to each other, their waiter coming back and giving them their food while they laughed like children.

When Karl finally leaned away from Chris and sat up, he saw the same expression as before on Sapnap's face. His brows were furrowed and his eyes were darkened, glaring only a little at Chris, his arms were crossed.

"Sap?" Karl said gently and Sapnap said nothing as he grabbed his own food. Karl shook it off as a result of the other maybe still being tired.

Chris looked at Sapnap and grinned, suddenly draping his arm around Karl, bringing him close as Karl, unbothered, ate his pancakes.

"So, Karl, my friend, am I invited to yours and Sapnap's and Quackity minecraft wedding?" Chris asked and Karl looked up at him. "Of course, I need my minecraft best man." Karl said and Sapnap cleared his throat.

"We've still got- We've still got to plan it." Sapnap mumbled and Karl nodded. "We've got to talk to Q soon about planning it! Fundy made it almost impossible to top his and Dream's though." Karl stated.

Chris looked taken aback. "Fundy is the fox guy right?" Karl nodded at him, not able to actually move his head much since Chris held him mostly pressed against his side. "You're gonna- you're just gonna have to explain the minecraft stuff to me one day, I don't understand."

Karl giggled a bit and felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Karl gently pushed Chris off him to answer it, opening his texts and seeing a message from Sapnap. Karl furrowed his brows and opened it.

**Sapnap: Made you look.**

Karl smiled softly at his phone and then looked up at Sapnap, who hid a smile as he ate his own breakfast.

He typed something back and set his phone next to him on his wall side. Sapnap glanced at his own phone now and let out a snort.

**Karl: no u**

**Sapnap: real mature**

The two started to text each other back and forth, hiding laughs and smiles behind their hands as they quietly ate their breakfast.

" _Really_ , right in front of my breakfast?" Nolan joked at the two, who turned red when they realized the other four had simply been watching them. "Shut up." Karl mumbled and set his phone down as he finished his food.

On the drive back, Karl was sat again on Sapnap's lap, fully awake and conscious of Sapnap's hold and his thumbs rubbing circles onto his hips.

Karl played with his sweater as he tried to focus on the conversation Jimmy and Chandler were having. Sapnap's breath tickled the back of his neck and Karl forced himself not to lean back into the warmth that is Sapnap.

He tried to even his breathing, frowning a bit as he tried to not let his struggle but too obvious but failed.

Chris looked back at Karl from his spot in the passenger seat and furrowed his brows. He reached his arm across and comfortingly patted Karl's knee. Karl gave him a small smile and rested his hand on top. Sapnap's grip on Karl's waist tightened a bit and Karl was pulled back further into Sapnap's lap.

Chris laughed at that but kept his hand on Karl's knee until they got out.

Once they were free from the confines of the car, Jimmy set Chris and Karl to work, giving them segments they needed to edit and Karl groaned.

"Jimmy, you bring me friend who I've never met up with IRL here and then give me work to do?" Kal whined.

"Sapnap is going to pick up snacks and stuff for us anyway so he'll be busy for a bit. You'll be working no more than an hour, Karl." Jimmy said and Karl dragged himself over to his desk, Chris next to him using Karl's second screen.

"Have you told him yet?" Chris asked ten minutes later while they were editing and Karl turned to him. 

"Told who what?" 

Chris rolled his eyes, sliding off his headphones. "Told Sapnap how you feel?" He asked and Karl turned red, embarrassed at how well his friend could read him.

"I'm not gonna." Karl said simply.

"Well why not?"

"Because he probably doesn't feel the same, Chris." Karl said, a little aggravated. "I don't wanna make the few days he's here awkward and I don't want to ruin our friendship. Besides he's also probably straight, you heard the podcast." 

Chris sighed and turned to him.

"Karl, I can assure you, your guys' friendship won't be ruined if you tell him." Chris said, determined. "And he definitely feels something for you, anytime I get within a five foot radius of you, he's ready to kill me."

"He's just like that," Karl brushed off. "I don't want to risk it though. And besides, Sapnap is this amazing guy, who's super funny and handsome and charming and if let's say I did confess then what? For some miracle he says yes? I'm stealing I'm away from someone who could be a lot better to him."

"Karl Jacobs," Chris started, staring his friend dead in the eyes. "You are by far or of my closest friends, okay? And I am not going to sit here and listen to you talk bad about yourself. Sapnap would be more than lucky to have you as his boyfriend. You are the most caring person I've ever met and you show that to everyone. If you think even for a minute you wouldn't be worth it to Sapnap, than the world may as well be ending because that's the furthest from the truth."

Karl smiled through teary eyes and hugged his friend. "Thank you man." Karl said and Chris hugged him back.

After a moment when Karl pulled away he shifted on his chair a bit. "There's still the whole, He-May-Be-Straight thing though." Karl mumbled.

"That is true, I can't say anything because I'm not Sapnap. He very well could be, but he could also very well not be." Chris said and Karl huffed. "Why are you like this?" He joked.

Chris laughed and shook his head, pulling his headphones back up as he turned to his work.

"Someone has to be." He stated simply and Karl smiled goofily as he too resumed working.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT WHEN SAP WAS DRIVING TO MEETUP WITH DREAM THAT KARL AND HIM APPARENTLY CALLED WHILE HE DROVE SO HE DIDNT FALL ASLEEP? I- DID I MANIFEST SOMETHING? ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS MEETUP LOLOL
> 
> Anyway I've started coming up with further plot for this so I'm thinking it might be a max of like 12 chapters?
> 
> Also someone asked on Twitter if you can draw fanart and I'm here to say that is more than appreciated!!!! And if you do tag me on Twt or smth so I can see!!!!!


	9. I'd Rather See You Than The Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A date? No, just two friends chilling, obviously.

Karl stood up cheering, his chair falling behind him, as he finished his segment. "I'm free!" He shouted and Chris snorted at him. "Sapnap got back like ten minutes ago so go continue your movie date." Chris teased and Karl dropped his arms.

"Chris-" "Dates can be platonic, Karl." Chris said and then looked at him over his shoulder. "And you don't have to tell him anything, but I think you should before you can't see him again for a while." 

Karl nodded and sighed. "I'll.... I'll try." 

Karl walked out into the living room and greeted Sapnap again. Sapnap looked up from his spot on the couch where he'd been mindlessly scrolling through his phone and smiled, Karl smiling back.

"Come cuddle," Sapnap insisted and Karl flushed, opening his mouth to say something but closed it again. Sapnap made grabby arms and Karl shuffled over, playing with his sweater and sat next to Sapnap, who wrapped his arms around him.

Karl sighed and leaned against him a bit, feeling Sapnap smile against his shoulder. "Wanna watch another movie?" Karl asked and Sapnap nodded. "What do you wanna watch?"

"I don't know," Karl mumbled. "Wanna go out then?" Sapnap said.

"Out where?" Karl asked. 

"We can go to a movie or something. I just don't wanna spend the whole time I'm hanging out with you cooped inside." Sapnap said.

"There's not many places we can go unfortunately cause of stupid corona." Karl said.

"You two can stargaze." Nolan said and Karl grabbed the couch pillow, chucking it at the other man who entered the living room.

"Honk off Nolan!" Karl said and Nolan smacked the pillow out of the air. "I'm just saying. Get some picnic food, lay out in the grass and look at the stars." Nolan said with a teasing grin.

"Sounds nice actually, but we don't have anything to do in the meantime." Sapnap said and Karl turned pink at the implication. Chris appeared in the doorway with a grin. "Karl c'mere, I have an idea." Chris said and Karl untangled himself from Sapnap, who held on tightly when he tried to get up, walking over to his friend.

Chris motioned for Karl to lean in so he can whisper. "Okay, one, you guys should go to that resturant across the street, it looks really nice and fancy." Chris whispered into Karl's ear, a hand up to cover his mouth as he leaned in close to his friend. "Two, quickly glance at Sapnap just so you can see what I mean by he looks like he's going to murder me."

Karl turned pink and quickly glanced like he was told, turning redder when he saw Sapnap's hand was in a fist, glaring at Chris.

Karl tugged Chris' sleeve a bit to switch them around, whispering back. "One, I hate you, two that sounds like a date idea." 

Chris scoffed and switched back. "Yeah no shit dude. Just do it." Chris said and gently shoved Karl's shoulder.

Karl was red and shoved him back, walking over to Sapnap, who was still glaring a bit at Chris. "There's a restaurant we can go to." Karl said and Sapnap smiled. "Kaaarrrl, are you asking me on a date?" Sapnap teased. "Because the answer is an obvious yes."

Karl heard Chris punch something behind him and whisper "He's so fucking dense I'm-" Before leaving and Karl just ignored him.

"Okay, but I'm paying you nimrod." Karl stated.

Sapnap grinned. "Last one to the resturant gets to eat free." Sapnap said and shoved his shoes on, running out the door.

"WHAT? SAP NO I'M PAYING YOU CAN'T-" Karl tied his shoes quickly, chasing after him.

"GUYS PLEASE THAT'S A HIGHWAY YOU HAVE TO CROSS!" Jimmy yelled out at them but they were too far to hear.

"Sap this is so unfair I suggested it!" Karl yelled as he slowly caught up to Sapnap.

"Yeah but I'm the one surprising you this week so it's my duty to cover all costs!" Sapnap insisted over his shoulder.

"That makes no sense!" Karl yelled and they zig zagged dangerously through cars on the highway, almost getting hit a few times as Sapnap touched the resturant door. "SUCK IT JACOBS!" Sapnap said, victoursly.

Karl finally caught up, putting his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "So- unfair." Karl huffed out and Sapnap smiled. "You can make it up to me with cuddles during stargazing later, deal?" Sapnap said and Karl just nodded.

"We almost just honking died like eight times." Karl huffed out, standing up straight now and Sapnap opened the door for him.

"We both did, probably shouldn't do that again."

They had a peaceful late lunch early dinner meal, full of inside jokes and muffled laughter as they tried not to disturb the other diners. Eventually though, Karl cackled too loudly and they were politely removed from the premises for being a distubrance to others, it was a high class diner.

Karl and Sapnap were more careful crossing the highway back now, going one lane at a time and when they got back the winter night had fallen.

"Get a blanket and I'll get snacks." Karl ordered and Sapnap saluted. "Aye aye Captain." Sapnap said and Karl gigdled as he raided the pantries they had semi stocked with leftove snacks, holding them in a makeshift sweatshirt pocket as he ran outside and dumped them on the grass.

He grabbed a soda from the fridge and while he was searching for plastic cups, Chandler approached him. "How was your date?" He asked, towering over the older man as he reached for some snacks of his own.

"It wasn't a date." Karl stated. "Sapnap seems to think otherwise." Chandler said as he pulled down a bag of goldfish.

"He's just joking around, he does this with his other friends a lot." Karl stated because this honestly just was the way Sapnap behaved with Callahan, Dream, George, Quackity, you name it.

"Is he?" Chandler asked, skeptical. Karl hesitated but nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have a star gazing arrangement." Karl said and turned away.

Sapnap was already sat on a blanket outside, moving a few rocks onto the blanket so it wasn't blown away by the strong winds. 

The two ate snacks and drank for a bit before laying down opposite ways, shoulder to head, head to shoulder. Karl's feet faced the Airbnb, Sapnap's face a tree the opposite direction of the Airbnb.

Sapnap's hair tickled Karl's cheek a bit and he smiled, hands crossed on his stomach. Sapnap pointed up at a star, tilting his head towards Karl a bit. "There's the Big Dipper." Sapnap said and Karl smiled.

"I know what the Big Dipper looks like Sapnap." Karl said with a teasing smile. "I know, I'm just trying to be cool Karl." Sapnap said and they both laughed, leaning into each other a bit. 

The air was chill, the wind making it even colder as it pushed Karl's hair to frame his face a bit more, pushing Sapnap's back from his face. The stars were bright in the night sky despite the highway they were next to. It was getting late so it was getting quieter as well, only four or five cars passing on the highway every minute.

IT felt heavily romantic to Karl and he willed his blush away and if Sapnap saw it, he'd blame it on the cold air.

"Karl you are very handsome." Sapnap said. The line would've been more romantic, would've made Karl's breath hitch and his heart stop had it not been for the goofy smile and light hearted tone of Sapnap's voice.

Karl smiled a bit awkwardly back. "You too." Karl said and cursed his voice for letting emotion show through.

Sapnap looked into Karl's eyes, silent and the quickly glanced at his lips, back to his eyes.

They held each others gaze for what felt like years.

"Karl I-" The silence and comforting moment was broken by a thunderous roar and a crack of lightning, making both males jump up at the sudden soundm the sky filling brightly. After a few seconds it started to pour.

"Oh it's cold." Karl panicked, skin freezing already at the icy contact. Sapnap stood up, helping Karl up as they tried to bring the blanket and snacks in quickly.

"Holy shit, you guys are soaked." Chris commented as they ran inside. "Yeah no shit." Sapnap said and dropped the food on the table.

Both men were bright red, having just shared a somewhat romantic tension filled moment just to be interrupted.

"I'm changing." Karl said, tearing off his sweatshirt and racing to his room. Within minutes, Karl came back, hair dripping wet but fresh dry clothes on. Sapnap finished bringing all the snacks in and Chris looked at him. "You should change too." Chris said and Sapnap nodded, taking his shirt off and walking to the room.

Karl squeaked and covered his eyes, cheeks red. "NOT HERE!" Karl said and Chris laughed as Sapnap disapeared into the room.

"Sooo," Chris said and Karl looked at him. "How was your date?"

"I haven't said anything." Karl said and Chris sighed. "You're gonna have to tell him Karl. You're gonna both get hurt this way."

"But what if he doesn't-" Karl sighed. "What if you're wrong and he doesn't like me? It'll be awkward."

"Well, he leaves soon anyway, right? And you guys do the minecraft stuff so let's say for any reason he turns you down and it is awkward. You won't have to speak to him face to face and you guys will be in groups like normal and soon the awkwardness passes and you two can be normal again." Chris said and Karl looked at his feet.

"I mean it's not like Sap would drop you as a friend for any reason, he cares about you too much. And like I said, I genuinely think he likes you back. Please just promise me you will tell him before he leaves." Chris said.

"I-" Karl looked at him. "Fine, fine I promise I'll tell him, but only during the perfect moment."

Chris smiled and brought Karl into a hug.

"Perfect." Chris kissed the top of Karl's head, similar to what they've done for years. "Love you man." 

"I love you too nimrod." Karl said and pushed back from Chris a bit, the other looking past him a bit.

"Oh hey Sapnap."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't run across highways kids.
> 
> Guys stop saying this is cute, I'm know for angsty docs and can't have a cute fic, I will make Karl get run over by a car if this nonsense doesn't stop XD /NM /LH
> 
> If you hate when characters don't know how to communicate, boy are you gonna hate the next chapter lololol


	10. Green Is Not Your Color Sap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy gives Karl a condition, Sapnap is being weird and Karl forgot his phone at home. 
> 
> But nothing can go wrong right?

Karl smiled and waved at Sapnap who had a towel over his wet hair and was wearing dry clothes now.

Sapnap shifted on his feet and rubbed his arm a bit, avoiding Karl's eyes. "I- Uhm,...." Sapnap didn't say anything and Karl frowned. "Sapnap, you okay?" Karl asked, moving forward and pressing a hand to his forehead, pushing back Sapnap's light brown hair.

"You're not warm," Karl said and tried to make eye contact with Sapnap, the other just looking down at his feet.

"Oh Sapnap we're not-" Chris started but then another loud boom of thunder exploded and made them all jump as the lights and power went out. "We're not-" He tried again but Jimmy clapped his hands together as he entered the room. "Alright! Everyone get candles!" He called out, Nolan and Chandler bustling about to get lighters, Karl moving to get candles and Sapnap simply disappeared from Chris' line of vision.

Chris stood in place for a moment and then went about to work too.

Once they'd finished lighting up the living room, Jimmy made them all sit in a circle, Sapnap a few feet away from it. Karl looked over at him for a moment, eyes a bit sad as he brought his attention back to his other friends.

"Alright, so, I'm gonna order pizza since we have no way to cook right now. I checked all the computers and only Chandler's editing segment didn't save." "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" "We have a small generator in the closet that the Airbnb came with, we can use it to power wifi or watch a movie."

"Wifi!" All of them shouted in unison. "Alright, that's settled. What pizza do you guys want?"

And soon they all sat around two pizza boxes, phones lighting up their faces as they scrolled through different social media platforms.

Sapnap laid on the couch, back facing everyone as he scrolled through his own phone and Karl moved to sit at the end, picking up his feet and placing them in his lap. Sapnap looked down at him for a moment but didn't say anything and Karl frowned.

"Are you good, man?" Karl asked. "I'm fine." Sapnap mumbled. "Just tired."

"It's fine if you go to sleep earlier than us. No one will judge." Karl said and Chris chuckled. "Least of all Karl. He's used to everyone going to bed before him because he doesn't sleep until like 3." He joked and Karl rolled his eyes at his friend, laughing.

Sapnap watched the interaction and swallowed harshly, sitting up. "I think I'll turn in early then. Goodnight everyone." Sapnap said, waving goodbye over his shoulder as he walked out.

"Night Sap! Love you!" Karl called out, grinning. Sapnap didn't respond, closing the bedroom door and silence filled the living room as Chris, Chandler and Jimmy turned to look at Karl.

Karl's smile fell and he furrowed his brows in confusion, perplexed and a little bit upset. His heart burned in the worst possible way as he stared at the closed bedroom door.

"Harsh." Nolan said, eyes glued to his phone and Chandler punched him in response.

"What happened?" Jimmy asked and Karl looked at him. "I'm- I'm sure that was nothing. He's just tired." Karl said, hands fidgeting with his sleeves.

"Karl," Chris said, turning to him. "He thinks we're dating."

"What?" Karl awkwardly chuckled at that. "No, he knows you're married."

Chris sighed and looked Karl dead in the eyes. "Yes, and he also know I came out as bisexual a few months ago. Did you not see the amount of hate I got? The people asking if I'd cheat on Katie? I'm sure he doesn't think it like that but there is still the stigma of bi people cheating. The amount of times I had to reassure biphobic people Katie and I would be fine and I wouldn't cheat on her is way more than Jimmy probably makes a year."

Karl looked at his best friend, a bit pained he had to go through things like that and Chandler rubbed Chris' back comfortingly. "I know Sapnap wouldn't be rude like that. But I'm sure he thinks we're dating. And besides, when you're in love with someone, thoughts like that never cross your mind" Chris stated.

"I- He's not- What would make him think that we're dating?" Karl asked. "Uh, he saw me kiss you, hug you and say 'i love you'?" Chris said like it was obvious.

"Yeah, but I do that with everyone." Karl said. "How's he supposed to know? He only knows what he can hear, he doesn't see you interacting with people a lot." Chris said.

"He has been jealous about you and Chris this whole past two days," Chandler noted.

"And you guys do act all flirty." Nolan chimed in.

"Not to mention, Chris is your best friend." Jimmy added on and Karl groaned.

"Y'know, it was annoying when it was just Chris giving me advice but all of you?" Karl whined. 

"Well to be fair we're all either married or have girlfriends so technically we're the best people to ask." Chandler stated and Karl groaned, leaning back into the couch and sinking down.

"I hate you all." Karl mumbled and the others laughed.

"You need to clarify with him we're not together." Chris said. 

"Why can't you?" Karl whined and Chris threw his hands up. 

"I TRIED LIKE THREE TIMES!" He yelled. "I keep getting interrupted! You two share a room you can tell him then!" 

Karl made a long whining noise as he rolled off the couch, pouting at Chris.

"But it's gonna be awkward!" Karl said. "Hey! For some reason you think me and Chris are dating but fear not, he is married and I am single! Why do you ask that I clarify this? Because Chris told me you like me so I don't want you to get the wrong idea! Oh you don't like me? Just ignore that then!" Karl acted out the scene with a forced smile and once he finished it he dropped his arms.

"It'll be awkward! And I don't want things to be awkward!" Karl whined.

"So what, are you just never gonna tell him and blow your shot at this?" Nolan asked 

"You guys keep telling me to shoot my shot but I don't even know if Sapnap likes guys! Like this could literally all just be him legitimately being tired and just being really friendly!" Karl said. "He's never said he's into guys and he's never said he's not into girls!"

"And we can't assume anything." Chris added. "But Karl, even if he is straight I think you should still tell him. This will eat you up inside everyday if you don't tell him and you'll regret it your entire life." 

Karl brought his knees to his chest and looked at his friends one by one. 

"I just don't want to ruin this." Karl said and Jimmy stood up.

"Alright, I did not pay for this man to fly all the way here just for you to waste your shot. Tell him how you feel by the time we leave or I'll fire you." Jimmy said and everyone made a different sound of shock as they looked at their boss.

"Jimmy you can't be serious." Nolan said, now fully paying attention, phone discarded.

"Dead." Jimmy responded.

"He already promised me he would, no need to threaten his job." Chris said.

"Jimmy please he's a coward you can't-" Chandler looked at Karl, who's eyes were wide in shock. "You can't do this."

"I will. Karl really likes Sapnap, Hell he loves him, okay? And I am not going to watch him throw away his chance. Karl, if you don't tell Sapnap how you feel by the time we drop him off at the airport again in two days then I will fire you." Jimmy finished his sentence and cleaned up the empty pizza boxes, walking away.

Karl slowly stretched his legs out, eyes still wide as he stared at his knees.

"Holy honk. I really have to do this now?" Karl said, voice quiet.

"It seems so." Chandler said.

Karl slowly got up and cleaned up his own mess, rubbing his face then.

"I'm gonna- I'm gonna go to bed now." Karl said and everyone nodded, saying a quick goodnight as Karl slowly opened the bedroom door.

"Sap?" Karl called and was met with a snore. He hummed to himself and walked over to his spot on the floor, crawling under his stuff and going to sleep.

Hopefully it would just be a rare peaceful night, he doesn't know how he'd be able to handle the dream again.

But, y'know, things don't work out like that.

This time, Karl's situation was a lot different then he normally had it. 

Instead of his legs being stuck in ice, he had free movement, but everywhere he looked, there was at least forty feet high of snow. He was in about a foot and a half diameter of tunnel space.

He looked up at the top of his tunnel when he felt a chunk of snow fall on him.

And then another. 

And another 

Karl squinted up and saw five shovels, all moving and pouring chunks of snow on him.

Karl's eyes widened. They were burying him. 

Who they were, he had no clue.

Karl cupped his hands around his mouth. "HEY!" He called out, surprised he could actually speak for once. 

The shovels all stopped and he saw faces peek out.

His friends, Sapnap, Chris, Chandler, Jimmy and even Nolan all looked down at him 

Karl waved up at them. "Hey! I'm down here!" He yelled but the faces disappeared, being replaced with shovels as they continued to bury him.

Karl panicked. It was getting way too cold and way too hard to breathe already.

"GUYS STOP IT'S ME!" Karl yelled. The shoveling never ceased.

"GUYS! ITS ME, KARL! I NEED HELP!" 

"STOP!"

"STOP IT!" 

"STOP BURYING ME!"

"STOP!" 

Karl sat up, covering his mouth as he realized he had said the last one aloud, in real life.

Tears streamed down his face and Sapnap sat up in his bed.

"Karl?" Sapnap spoke, voice soft in the night. 

"Sorry." Karl whispered shakily. 

"Are you okay?" Sapnap asked and Karl shook his head. 

The room was silent between them, thunder and lighting filling the room as the rain poured harshly outside, strong winds pushing down tree branches.

Karl vaguely thought about how it resembled the emotions inside him.

"Can I- can I sleep with you again?" Karl asked quietly.

He was met with a minute of silence.

"No," Sapnap finally said and Karl forced down the sob that wanted to escape. ".... Okay. That's fine, sorry." Karl mumbled back.

It was probably for the best anyway, Sapnap seemed to be pissed at him today for something and Karl didn't want to ruin whatever was going on further by being all touchy.

Sapnap didn't say anything after that, probably going back to sleep.

Karl let his tears fall silently down his face, the rain being louder than him as he let out shaky gasps.

Karl didn't go back to sleep.

When morning came and he heard someone moving around in the kitchen, Karl got up, going down to greet them.

"You look like death." Chris noted and Karl softly punched him. "Are you okay?" 

"Just a nightmare." Karl said and made a cup of coffee, pouring an unhealthy amount of sugar in it and then some more.

"Did you talk to him?" Chris asked.

"Can every conversation we have stop being 'did you talk to him'?" Karl asked and Chris just chuckled. 

"Nice weather we're having?" Chris joked and Karl looked outside. It was still raining, but not as hard because the power was back.

"Not at all." Karl mumbled and Chris laughed.

"Chandler is gonna be pissed today. It was supposed to be his free day but now he has to re-edit his segment. I told him to just send it to Ethan but he wants self satisfaction." Chris said and Karl leaned against him as he sleepily drank his coffee.

"I was gonna try and get a gift for Tucker and Katie while we're here but most of the local stores are still out of power. Except one like twenty miles away but I don't wanna drive alone." Chris said.

"I'll go with you." Karl said and Chris hummed. "Would you? I didn't know if you had plans or not." Chris said and Karl shook his head.

"Was supposed to hang with Sap but... I think he hates me now." Karl mumbled, sniffling a bit.

"Nah," Chris denied. "No he- he does, I'm sure. The 'I love you' thing yesterday and when- when I woke up from my nightmare he didn't even say anything. Yesterday he'd been so nice about it but tonight was.... I don't know." Karl sobbed a bit, his tired state making him a bit less guarded.

"Hey, Sap doesn't hate you. He's just being angsty okay, I'm sure you guys will be fine later." Chris said and Karl sniffled again.

"We will?" Karl asked and Chris nodded. "You will."

Karl put his coffee down and hugged Chris tightly. "Dude, I love you so much." Karl sobbed and Chris went stiff in his hold.

"I fucking hate you, stop walking in at these moments." Chris deadpanned and Karl, confused, pulled away and looked where he was staring, finding Sapnap in the entrance again.

Deja Vu

Sapnap frowned and turned away.

"What happened?" Karl asked and Chris sighed. 

"Hey, Karl? How about we stop being friends for the next two days because this is going to kill me. Or he is." Chris said and Karl frowned.

"What is? Who?" Karl asked.

"Motherfucking Sapnap, okay?" Chris gestured at where the man had stood seconds before.

"Being all broody and stuff. Okay, we'll go get gifts for Katie and Tucker today, I'm gonna ask Chandler to try and explain shit to Sapnap, sounds good?" Chris asked and Karl frowned.

"Explain what exactly?" He asked.

"Just clear up the whole dating nonsense, okay? Because I know you won't do it but I'm tired of this happening over and over again. He won't say anything else, just clear it up, is that okay?" Chris asked and Karl sighed. "Is that okay?" Chris repeated.

Karl nodded. "That'll- that'll make it less awkward for me then." Karl decided. Chris nodded. "Alright, let's go shopping then. Chandler will figure it out for you and you can come back and it'll all be chill and he leaves tomorrow so it'll be fine."

Karl smiled and the two left a note for Jimmy, announcing their absence and got into the car. Karl turned on the radio, jamming out and belting out lyrics, Chris shaking his head and looking at his phone every now and then, reading messages and updates from Chandler.

"Alright, Chandler says he informed Sapnap about everything," Chris said. "Chandler said he texted you already but you weren't answering." 

Karl furrowed his brows and checked his pockets. "Oh, my phone isn't on m- CHRIS!" Karl yelled at his friend, who had been swerving a bit into opposite traffic.

Chris immediately swerved back on track, handing his phone to Karl so he could read his messages instead.

Chandler didn't text anything yet so Karl sighed a bit, leaning back into his seat. "Hey, you don't think Jimmy would really fire me, do you?" Karl asked, voice soft.

"I don't know. Jimmy is stubborn when it comes to things like these. He's your friend and cares about you and really just doesn't want you to blow your shot. Sapnap leaves tomorrow at 8, that's still like, 30 hours for you to confess. I think if it came down to it and you didn't tell him how you felt, he wouldn't fire you." Chris said, though it was obvious there was something else he wanted to say.

"....But it's better to be safe than sorry," Karl finished his thought and Chris nodded.

Karl sighed and looked out the window as they drove, looking down at Chris' phone now as it swerved again, narrowly missing crashing into another car. Karl opened his friend's phone to message Chandler in hopes for a response so he wasn't bored anymore.

hey chandler this is karl i think i left my phone back there

come back and get it then

No thatd be a waste of gas

sapnap tried calling you

Karl's brows furrowed at those words before he registered it.

Sapnap, phone, ringtone.

And whoo, yep, he definitely wasn't bored anymore as adrenaline rushed through his body.

"We need to turn around." Karl said and Chris looked at him confused. "We need to- my phone- Sapnap tried calling."

Karl was visibly panicking, worried Sapnap had called him and heard the song and somehow figured out Karl was helplessly in love with him and wouldn't even get the chance to tell him himself.

Chris seemed to understand that and turned the car around in a dangerous U-Turn, making Karl squeal as they almost crashed into a car.

"I really don't wanna die due to a car Chris." Karl said and Chris rolled his eyes. "You're not gonna die due to a car, Karl." Chris said as he zoomed down the road.

Karl's foot tapped anxiously as they went back to get his phone. He was trying to remember if he put his phone on silent or vibrate, desperately hoping he did as Chris pulled into the Airbnb driveway.

Karl jumped out of the car and ran inside, looking around the living room.

"Where's my phone?" Karl yelled and Sapnap walked in, red faced and held out his phone.

Karl grabbed it, noticing a few miscalls from Chandler and the newest from Sapnap. Karl looked up at his friend who avoided his gaze.

"Nice ringtone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHY DID YOU ALL GET EXCITED ABOUT THE CAR THING??? IM- I WILL DO IT LOL. NO ONE WILL BE HAPPY ABOUT IT. I HAVE THE PERFECT WRITING OPPORTUNITY TO MKE KARL GET HIT BY A CAR AND DID I ACTUALLY EVER SAY HE'D SURVIVE IT? BECAUSE LAST I CHECKED I HAVE 50% MORTALITY RATE FOR FICS. /nm /lh /hj
> 
> Hahahah, anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, it was fun to write and a lot went down.
> 
> Also, do you guys think Jimmy will fire Karl over this? Do you think Karl will actually ever tell Sapnap his feelings? Just wanna see how you guys think it'll go


	11. Why Face Your Problems When You Can Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl runs and the Beast gang and Sapnap talk about what to do next

Karl's eyes widened as he turned and faced Sapnap, chest tight, emotions in a swirl. 

"I-" Karl tried to speak but his voice didn't seem to be working again. 

No, not again, for the first time, the other time was in a dream so it doesn't matter.

Well, that's okay because Karl didn't actually know what he'd say anyway.

Sapnap still stood there, his own face red, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for some kind of response from Karl. Sapnap looked like he wanted to say something too but didn't know how to word it.

Karl didn't know what to do. Was this it? Was Sapnap embarrassed the other had a literal love song set as his ringtone? Chandler explained the whole situation but what if Sapnap really didn't care about it? Did Sapnap hate him now?

Karl didn't know what to do.

He didn't know how to respond, speak, listen, explain, fix the situation.

Though it really wasn't a situation, Karl was just freaking out of course.

Chris honked the horn outside to get Karl's attention, most likely yelling at him to hurry up and at that moment Karl did the only thing he knew how to.

He ran.

He ran from his emotions, he ran from the consequences, he ran from what could very well be love, running out the back door, ignoring Sapnap calling after him, ignoring Chris yelling at him from the car, ignoring the world as he ran down the road, tears in his eyes.

He had no clue where he was running to, just knew he had to get away, to think, to gather his thoughts, to get somewhere safe.

Karl ran down the backroad that came off the highway, feet slipping as he ran along the edge, holding onto the rail that separated the road from a steep cliff.

Karl couldn't see, couldn't focus, only knew his feet running against the road, only knew the pounding in his heart, only knew the car horn screaming at him from behind.

Wait what.

Karl stopped running and turned around, meeting a blinding headlight swerving in his direction and he screamed out.

~~~~

Sapnap paced the kitchen, biting his thumb as he recapped what had happened to Karl's friends, who all sat worriedly at the table.

"You gave him his phone and he ran?" Nolan asked.

"Well I said 'nice ringtone,' and there was like a minute of silence and then Chris honked and then he ran." Sapnap explained and Chris hummed.

"I think it's all the stress from the pressure we've been putting on him." Chris said to his friends and they nodded.

"We should've been easier on him." Chandler said.

"I think it's my fault." Sapnap said and Chris bit back the urge to yell that it technically was his fault because they're both idiots. "I- He had a nightmare last night and I was a bit rude to him about it and it seemed to shake him up pretty bad and with everything yesterday I-"

Jimmy put a hand on Sapnap's shoulder and sighed.

"It was all of us, we were pressuring him about stuff involving work." Jimmy said.

"Not me!" Nolan shouted. "I was just chilling."

Everyone ignored Nolan and Jimmy continued.

"I gave him a harsh deadline for something and said if he didn't meet it he'd be fired," Jimmy said.

"I've been pressuring him all week to do something he's not ready to do." Chris added.

"And I've been no help joking around about it." Chandler said.

"Alright, you guys all have been being shit, what matters now is we find him before he gets lost or hurt." Nolan said, sitting up.

"You think he's gonna get hurt?" Sapnap stressed. "No, he'll be fine, I'm just saying we need to find him before anything does happen," Nolan explained. "He's our friend and he's upset right now, the longer we wait, the more upset he'll get."

"Awww, Nolan does care about Karl guys!" Chris teased and Chandler cooed as they both poked at Nolan, the other groaning and batting their hands away.

"He is my friend guys," Nolan complained. "Yeah but you're so emotionally constipated we forget sometimes." Chris joked and Nolan tackled him to the ground as the others laughed, glad to have an uplifting feel in the room after stressing over their friend.

"Alright, so we should all split up, look in different directions to find Karl. It's only been ten or so minutes so he couldn't have gone far." Jimmy said.

"Alright, Jimmy, you take the car and drive around, Nolan and I will check the back road, Chris and Sapnap, you guys go check across the highway." Chandler ordered and everyone grabbed jackets, keys, phones, shoes.

They were certain their friend hadn't run off too far, but they still worried of course.

Sapnap and Chris slowly crossed the highway, being safe and looking back and forth each lane they crossed.

"You said you were pressuring Karl to do something he didn't want to do, what is it?" Sapnap asked, breaking the awkward silence.

Chris looked at him as they walked around the local stores and gas stations for a few minutes before answering. "I don't think I should say until he decides whether or not he will do it." Chris answered finally and Sapnap nodded.

"You said you'd been a bit harsh to him last night, how so?" Chris asked and Sapnap turned red.

"I- so the second night I came by he had a nightmare and to calm him down I let him sleep on the bed with me. But last night he had a nightmare and he asked to do that again when he woke up and I said no." Sapnap said, rubbing the back of his neck and Chris rolled his eyes, trying not to yell about how stupid they both were.

"That's not entirely your fault, you both had a rough day yesterday." Chris said and Sapnap shrugged.

"I just added to it though," Sapnap mumbled and Chris' phone rang suddenly.

"Hold that thought." Chris said and answered his phone.

"Hey Chandler, what's up?" Chris listened, eyes widening and he froze in his tracks. "We'll be there as soon as possible."

Sapnap started to panic now as Chris turned to him. 

"Karl's in trouble."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last straw guys. Behave XD. Just a note: if it is a car crash I can confirm Karl won't survive lololol.
> 
> But dw, as long as you guys acknowledge this is in fact an ANGST story and not a cute wholesome one, Everything Will Be Okay (:
> 
> Follow me on Twitter lololol @sonayesul 
> 
> Feel free to tell at me for that ending I give you all full permission


	12. #karlfell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day is full of tears and apologies

Chandler stood over the edge of the cliff, pacing back and forth as he waited for Chris, Jimmy and Sapnap to catch up. They were taking forever despite them still being in the same area. Jimmy hadn't even driven off that far, why was he so late?

Chandler looked at the road back to the Airbnb and sighed. Tire marks were burned into the ground that hadn't been there before, veering off to the side and then straight again before fading off into the distance.

A stray shoe was on the ground next to him, a cracked phone that definetly wasn't his was clutched in his hands as he paced back and forth.

Nolan stood awkwardly on his feet as they waited for the others to arrive and Chandler couldn't take the silence anymore.

"You saw a car and instead of running out of the way, you jumped down a cliff?" Chandler shouted loudly, glaring down said cliff.

A smaller man was curled up on a small ledge about half way down, body shaking as he sobbed and his head whipped up to look at Chandler.

"I'm sorry!" Karl cried up at him, not anywhere close to falling but it would take a lot of help to get him back up.

Nolan moved forward and put a hand on Chandler's shoulder to calm him down, looking at Karl.

"It's fine, it's fine, we just need the others to get here to help him up." Nolan said and Karl curled in on himself, shaking a bit. "Karl, are you okay?"

Karl didn't respond, crying into his arms as he rested them on top of his knees. He had freaked out when Sapnap gave him back his phone and he'd run away instead of facing confrontation. Once he'd jumped down the cliff he had been doing nothing but thinking about the problems and stress he'd cause for the others for half an hour.

Long story short, he wasn't doing too well and has had two panic attacks already.

"Where the fuck are they?" Chandler mumbled, pacing around, biting his nail as he waited for his friends. Thankfully it wasn't too long until he heard pounding footsteps approaching them. He turned, grateful to see Sapnap and Chris running full pace at them.

"You should've said something sooner." Nolan joked lightly, though there was still obvious concern in his voice.

"Where is he?" Sapnap asked once he approached and Chandler pointed down the side of the cliff to the small bundle of their friend.

Sapnap walked over and sat down on the side, looking worriedly down at Karl as the other rocked back in forth in his spot, soft sobs escaping him. All Sapnap wanted to reach out to Karl and pull him up into a hug, but knew it'd be too risky. It was bad enough having Karl stuck down there, it'd be no help if he got stuck down there also.

"Karl, we'll help you up as soon as we can!" Sapnap called out to him and Karl shook his head, a pang in Sapnap's heart thrumming.

"Just leave me," Karl mumbled, his voice soft and cracking with tears. "It's calm down here." 

Sapnap bit his lip and looked back at the others as Jimmy's car pulled up, finally.

"What's the plan?" Jimmy asked, rushing out of his car and slamming the door shut. "Firemen?" Chris asked, moving to sit on the ledge to be closer to his best friend. "I already tried, it's too narrow for them and they're too short staffed right now to come." Jimmy explained.

"What kind of firemen-" Chris' voice was cut off by a shaky sob escaping Karl.

"Leave me," Karl mumbled into the dead air and his friends shook their heads.

"We're not leaving you, Karl." Jimmy called down and they all moved to sit on the ledge. "You're our friend, there's no way in Hell we're leaving you stuck like this." Karl curled in on himself more, shaking his head.

The air was filled with silence, cars from the highway passing by, a bird occasionally chirping, water rushing in a stream below.

"Karl, I'm sorry about pressuring you for the past few days." Chris started suddenly and Karl went stiff. "I just didn't want you to end up losing... I didn't want you to lose it. But I realize now I should've been less forceful, not have been pushing you so much, and that I was just stressing you out more in the end."

"And I'm sorry too, I don't want to see you throw away this opportunity because I know how much you care about it, and I shouldn't have threatened your job." Jimmy started. "But this is the only chance you may ever get to do it right, I just don't want to see you hurt because you missed an opportunity."

"I'm sorry I haven't been as supportive recently either. I could've helped, given advice or something." Chandler said. 

"And I'm sorry for teasing you about it while all this was happening.." Nolan said. 

"I'm sorry I ignored you yesterday, and that I was being rude about it. That was unfair of me to do to you, especially when you needed help. I shouldn't have forced my problems onto you when all you needed was comfort." Sapnap said. Karl sniffled a bit and looked up. 

All his friends looked down at him and he had a strange sense of deja vu, like this had happened before. But this time, instead of feeling cold, scared and helpless, he felt warmth spread throughout him, he felt loved and he felt safe. He looked down at his knees and thought for a moment, letting their words wash over him before his licked his cracked lips to speak.

"Can," Karl looked to the side and slowly inhaled. "Can you guys help me up, I wanna hug you all."

Everyone smiled down at him and quickly got to work, making an almost human ladder as Jimmy held onto Chandler so he could safely reach down and grabbed Karl, who stretched his arms up to meet him.

After a struggle of ten minutes, Karl was finally lifted off the small ledge and back up onto the road where his friends all stood.

Chris immediately wrapped his arms around Karl, holding him tightly and Karl smiled into his shoulder, crying happily as he let himself relax a bit after the stressful day. Chandler wrapped his arms around his two friends, Sapnap hugged Karl's back, Nolan and Jimmy joining in and they all stood there, happy sobs escaping a few of them, comforting pats and soft whispers of "it's okay."

Karl never wanted to leave the warm hug, Chris' arms wrapped around him protectively, Sapnap's face tucked into his neck as he hugged him from behind, Chandler's arms holding him close as Jimmy and Nolan struggled to hug him as well. He wanted to live in the warmth and love of his friends forever but eventually pulled away when it got to stuffy to breathe properly.

"Thank you guys. I'm sorry I freaked out and caused this much trouble for you guys." Karl sniffled. Everyone pulled away from him, but Sapnap kept an arm around him and Karl flushed a bit at the contact.

"Don't apologize, it was our fault anyway." Chandler said and Karl smiled and shook his head a bit. "Well sorry I freaked out so much and ruined the week." Karl mumbled.

"You didn't ruin anything," Chris promised and Karl shrugged, shfiting on his feet and leaned against Sapnap a bit more before pulling away and rubbing his arm.

"Can we go back to the Airbnb? I'm a little tired." Karl mumbled sheepishly. "Yeah, you can rest up if you want, we'll go to the buffet I saw for dinner around 6." Jimmy said and they all started to head back.

"Crying for an hour really tires you out, huh?" Karl joked, wiping at his face to dry off imaginary tears now. Sapnap reached over and ruffled his hair and Karl flushed a bit as Sapnap kept his hand rested in his tousled half curls.

"Sorry we took so long." Sapnap apologized. "Sorry I fell off a cliff." Karl said and everyone chuckled a bit. 

"Alright, from here on out, everyone's sorry, everyone's apologies are forgiven, stop apologizing its getting annoying." Nolan said and everyone was full on laughing now as they entered the Airbnb, everyone sperating from each other a bit.

"Okay, I'm gonna go nap a bit, wake me up when we're getting ready to leave." Karl announced and everyone let him walk to his room, nodding agreements and wishing him a good rest.

Karl closed the door and frowned, sighing as he leaned against the wood and looked up at the ceiling.

Why did he have to cause so much trouble for everyone? He just ended up making them think it was their fault but it really wasn't.

Plus Sapnap still knew about his ringtone. He hasn't said anything yet, but they haven't ever been alone, Sapnap probably just doesn't want to ruin the week.

And he-

He was leaving tomorrow.

Karl didn't know when, or even if, he'd see Sapnap again, it could be weeks, months, years, never.

He didn't want to ruin their friendship, he loved Sapnap no matter what and didn't want to never speak to him again, but-

But Chris and Jimmy were right. He might never get this chance again. And even if things got awkward it wouldn't be face to face, right? Chris did mention how Sapnap wasn't that kind of person, and Karl knew he wasn't, so- So it wouldn't even be too bad if he did tell him? Right?

Karl sighed and stretched a bit, eyes heavy and body tired.

He would rest up a bit, and when he was rested and thinking clearly he'd decided what he should do.

Karl made to go sleep on the floor set up he had but hesitated, moving over to the bed instead.

He hesitantly laid down in the warm bed and smiled a bit. After the few days he'd been sleeping here, the bed took on Sapnap's smell and Karl let it fill his senses. 

Karl buried himself under the blankets and fell asleep with a heavy chest but peaceful mind.

Meanwhile, Sapnap stood awkwardly in the living room as everyone did random things to busy themselves with for the next few hours.

"Hey Chris?" Sapnap mumbled awkwardly and the older man turned. "Yeah?" Chris had his arms crossed and Sapnap cleared his throat nervously.

"Can we talk about something?" Sapnap mumbled and Nolan and Chandler looked at him suspiciously as Chris nodded.

"Alone or?" Chris left the question open ended and Sapnap nodded. "Yeah, uh, privately."

Chris nodded and the two walked out to the back, Sapnap nervously shuffling behind Chris.

"Is it about your crush on Karl?" Chris asked once they were outside and the door was closed and Sapnap turned red.

"I- What? I- uh, I mean it-" Sapnapn fidgeted with his hands, looking anywhere but at Chris and ran a hand through his shorter hair. He inhaled deeply and nodded. "Yeah... Yeah it is."

Chris smirked and leaned against the wall. "Okay, what about it specifically?" He asked. "Like, are you planning on telling him or what?"

Sapnap inhaled and exhaled slowly. "I was wondering if it was a good idea too. Like, I mean, you're his best friend, so you know if he feels the same or not, right? I think he would've told you. But also like, we don't get the chances to meet up that often so, I don't know. Like if I tell him and he feels the same, then what? We start dating? Long distance relationships don't always work out so well and I'm afraid if it does happen like that and at some point we break up, it'll ruin everything. And besides that, I don't know if he even likes me."

Chris nodded. "I'm not gonna say anything about Karl's feelings, okay? It's not my place. But I don't think confessing to him would be a bad idea. If you want to do it, I'd say go ahead." Chris tried to not expose Karl in anyway, as easy as it would be to just get them together now, he feels like he'd ruin something if he was the one to tell Sapnap how Karl felt. "And besides, if you're worried about the long distance stuff, I don't think Karl would mind. If he loves someone, he'll love them no matter how often he sees them."

Sapnap nodded a small bit but there was obviously more he wanted to hear.

"Just know," Chris continued and Sapnap looked at his feet but Chris could tell he was listening. "Karl would never turn you down harshly. If he doesn't feel the same, he'd still be your friend because he's that kind of guy. Trust me, I know. No matter what he'll stick with you."

Sapnap furrowed his brow a bit and looked at him. 

"Why have you, uh, like..." Sapnap didn't know how to word it but Chris shrugged and nodded. "A while ago, I'm married and have a kid though so you don't need to worry about anything." Chris said with a smirk and Sapnap looked at his feet again, cheeks a bit red.

"I- Okay..."

They were silent for a moment, Sapnap because he was trying to figure out how to word what he wanted to say, Chris because he figured Sapnap had more he wanted to ask, or tell.

"I'm not the best with emotions." Sapnap confessed.

"So I've noticed." Chris said and Sapnap half-heartedly glared at him.

"I just- I don't know, I know it's wrong of me to like, be protective over him and stuff since we're not together or anything, but it's just, anytime I see someone like flirting with him or something, it makes me feel like he could do better than me, yeah? But then there's a part of me that feels like I'm the best I could be for him so I get protective, and stuff." Sapnap mumbled. "Even in the stupid minecraft stuff. There was this one time Punz was helping him with a build and I just, I dunno."

Chris hummed with a knowing smile. "Well, not saying jealousy is good or anything, but sometimes Karl needs someone like that." He said nothing more on the topic.

The stood in awkward silence yet again before Sapnap sighed. "Thank you, I guess. Sorry for how awkward this probably was." He mumbled and Chris laughed.

"It wasn't, I've had more awkward conversations before. And besides, if you're going to be what makes Karl happy, I have no problem helping out." Chris said and turned to go inside.

"Oh, wait, uh, there was one more thing I wanted to ask." Sapnap said and Chris turned. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Uhm, it's about Karl's ringtone for me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys behaved and acknowledged this is in fact an angst fic so here you go, he's not dead. The next two chapters will, maybe, be fluffy romance now and hurt/comfort so no worries after this lolol 
> 
> I saw a few people confused about the timeline also so here you go  
> Sunday: drive there  
> Monday: challenge  
> Tuesday: challenger and they sleep and shiz  
> Wednesday: picked up Sapnap  
> Thursday: cute date day  
> Friday: this chapter  
> And then Sapnap leaves Saturday.
> 
> Also someone asked last chapter but if you guys want to put the fic into a rec list go ahead!!! It makes me more than happy you guys enjoy this enough to share it around!
> 
> Edit: I forgot to say, but shoutout to everyone who realized I never put the Character Death tag lololol


	13. Cause The Universe Hates Me, Obvi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl gains confidence to tell Sapnap how he feels, only problem is the whole universe seems to be trying to stop him

Karl sat awkwardly on Sapnap's lap again as they drove to the buffet down the road. It'd been a few hours after everything had gone down, Sapnap and Chris had finished their conversation, Karl had rested up and they'd all changed and were ready to go.

Karl had time to clear his head and made up his decision on what he was going to do regarding how he felt about Sapnap.

He'd tell him.

He'd tell Sapnap about how in love with him he was, about how he was all he could ever think about, about how he was scared to ruin their friendship, that he understands if Sapnap wants to take a break from talking to him after it.

Karl was going to tell him everything.

But only when the moment was right. He wasn't going to drop it mid conversation, he'd wait for the perfect opportunity to present itself.

For now, however, he let himself enjoy the soft circles Sapnap rubbed into his hips as they traveled down the slightly bumpy road.

It wasn't too far of a drive, they probably could have honestly walked instead, but it was way too cold (a freezing 65 degrees, so cold amirite?) for them to do that so instead they squeezed into the small car.

After a moment or so, Karl leaned back into Sapnap's hold, chest pressed against back, and the other instantly wrapped his arms around his stomach, resting his chin on his shoulder.

Karl felt warm, protected, safe, he felt like he fit right into his arms like a missing puzzle piece.

Karl started tracing circles on Sapnap's arm with a warm smile. 

He took a deep breath and turned his head to look back at him a bit.

Sapnap's brown eyes met Karl's gray ones and he waited for Karl to say something, expression open and soft.

Now, Karl's brain screamed. Do it now, this is perfect, it's wonderful, do it now.

Karl smiled and glanced away, looking at where his hand laid on Sapnap's arm. "Hey, Sap I-"

"Alright gang!" Jimmy yelled. "Two minute car ride is over, eat time!"

Karl jumped and scrambled off of Sapnap's lap, coughing as Chris gave him a knowing stare. His face burned as he felt Sapnap's gaze lock on him.

Okay, okay so that wasn't the right moment.

They all scrambled into the buffet and walked around to get food. There were countless different aisles of countless different foods. Signs everywhere that said to keep masks on unless you were seated, to use gloves and this and that.

Only a few other families sat in the restaurant, all laughing quietly or talking in hushed whispers as the whole buffet was eerily quiet.

Chris and Nolan didn't get the message to stay quiet though, getting food and racing to a table, flinging food at each other and screaming insults.

The others simply filled their plates high with food to eat, minding others and being respectful.

Karl stood at one section, debating which shape of chicken he should get, strips or nuggets, when Sapnap walked over.

"What are you doing?" Sapnap asked, laughing a bit as he looked from the food to Karl's confused face.

"I don't know which to get." Karl stated, voice dead serious and Sapnap full on laughed at that. "Just get both, it's a buffet Karl." Sapnap replied simply and moved his arm around him to grab some of his own chicken.

Karl felt his breath hitch when he felt Sapnap's chest lean against his back briefly. The small contact made his entire body fill with warmth again and Karl felt the urge to say it this time, again. 

It was a weird moment, just them standing and getting food, but Karl felt a sense overwhelming love fill him. Now, now was a good moment.

"Hey, uh Sapnap I-" Karl turned around to face Sapnap and turned red at their closeness, Sapnap backing up a bit with a similar pink face.

"I uh-" "CHANDLER WHAT THE FUCK!" Chris yelled across the restaurant as a loud crash sounded out. 

Sapnap and Karl turned to see Chandler and Chris trying to pick up two plates of food that had spilled on the ground and they rushed over to help, getting disapproving stares from parents around that had heard Chris curse.

Karl glared at Chris as he handed him the shattered plate shards and Chris made a confused expression back at him, looking between his and Sapnap's fleeting blushes and made the connection. "Oh shit I'm sorry-" Chris said and Karl turned his head away.

He wasn't actually mad, just upset at the timing.

Maybe he'd get it right later. I mean, this couldn't keep happening all day, right?

Right?

"Sapnap I'm in-" "Karl hurry up we're going back to the Airbnb!"

"I'm kind of in-" "Sapnap, move over I need to put our leftovers in the middle so they don't spill."

"Sap, I'm-" "CHANDLER YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HOLD THE FOOD!"

"Hey Sap-" "Karl, you're editing segment needs a few touch ups."

"Sap I'm really-" "KARL! WHERE DID YOU PUT MY HOODIE AFTER DOING LAUNDRY?"

Yeah, okay maybe it could keep happening.

Karl flopped onto the couch after helping Nolan look for his missing hoodie for an hour, stressed and tired and Chandler snorted at him.

"Why're you so stressed?" Chandler asked and Chris looked over at him from the kitchen.

"For people who urged me to confess to Sapnap, you guys are being such horrible cock blockers." Karl mumbled into the pillow, arm removing itself from where it'd been tucked between his stomach and the couch and covering his head. Chris and Chandler blinked, at both the sudden violent language and the statement.

"Oh shit you've been trying to confess?" Chandler yelled.

"You're actually doing it?" Chris asked and Karl groaned.

"Well I've been trying!" He yelled. "Anytime I'm alone with him, one of you buffoons ruin it! I want it to be at the right moment but the right moment keeps turning into the wrong one! I have less than a day to tell him now!" Karl whined and Chris moved over to him, kneeling in front of the couch and Karl turned his head to look at him.

"Uh, you guys can do that star gazing shit again! That almost worked out!" Chris suggested and as if on cue, the room lit up with lighting and the sound of rain pouring filled the house.

"I think the universe is trying to stop me from telling him," Karl whispered and Chandler shrugged. "Or maybe it's trying to set up the perfect moment for you." Chandler suggested hopefully.

"This is stupid. I'm tired, upset and lovesick." Karl mumbled. "And I have to stream tomorrow morning before we leave and then say goodbye to Sapnap, and I'm just never getting the chance to tell him, am I?"

"Make the chance." Chris suggested. "No! That's the whole point! I want it to happen naturally!" Karl whined.

"Well, what's he doing right now?" Chandler asked. "Can't you go watch a movie with him and tell him then?"

"No, he's packing everything up right now so we have less work in the morning." Karl said. "I'd do the same but I haven't even unpacked anything to begin with."

"Yeah, certainly not your feelings." Chris joked and Karl took the pillow he was laying on and smacked him with it.

"I'm going to bed, I'm too tired for this buffoonery." Karl said and Chris snickered at his word usage.

"Maybe tell him tomorrow?" Chandler called out as Karl shut his door, Sapnap jumping and dropping the shirt he was folding.

"Oh, hey Karl." Sapnap greeted and Karl responded with an annoyed 'hm.'

The younger male laughed at that as Karl dragged himself to his sleeping bag, crawling under the blankets.

"Tired?" Sapnap joked and Karl only nodded.

"Fair, it was a really long day, especially for you." Sapnap said and bit his lip as Karl closed his eyes, ignoring him.

"Hey uh," He coughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "So uhm, if you want you can sleep with me? I was a bit rude yesterday night but I don't want you to get nightmares again so like if cuddling and stuff helps?"

Karl peeked out from under his blankets with a red face and wide eyes, but a hopeful feeling in his chest.

He couldn't see Sapnap well in the dark lighting but he saw him shifting side to side.

"Really?" Karl asked and Sapnap coughed again. "Yeah, but only if like, you want to."

Karl didn't respond this time, simply pushing off his blankets and grabbing his pillow, walking over and laying down in Sapnap's bed. He hummed happily as he buried himself in the warm covers and Sapnap turned red at his reaction, putting away his last two shirts and zipping up his suitcase.

"Okay, I'm just gonna go brush my teeth and stuff and then I'll.... you know, join, or whatever." Sapnap said awkwardly and Karl smiled at him in lieu of response, too tired to trust his words.

As Sapnap left, Karl mulled over what had happened that day. He'd ran away after a simple incident about a phone ringtone, one that wasn't even ever mentioned again, went to a restaurant and tried to confess multiple times to the love of his life, only for things to keep interrupting, and now after he's decided the universe just hates him and is trying to never get him to confess, he's laying in his crush's bed, waiting for him to come back so they can cuddle.

Woooo, okay that was a lot. A lot going on. Was this the opportunity to tell him? Or was this the universe trying to tease him? Was something else going to go wrong?

Just as sleep started to overcome Karl and he felt his eyes growing heavy, Sapnap was back and awkwardly crawling into bed, staying at the far edge and in his sleep deprived state, Karl frowned.

He reached his arms forward and made small grabby hands. "How're we supposed to cuddle when you're all the way in narnia?" Karl joked and Sapnap laughed lightly, scooting closer so they were only a few inches apart. 

Karl immediately tucked himself into Sapnap's chest, throwing his one arm over his side and holding him close. Sapnap's own arms pulled Karl close, one against the back of his head and the other on his waist and Karl moved to tuck his face into Sapnap's neck.

Sapnap hummed a bit and Karl felt it thrum through his chest, feeling Sapnap's heart pounding against his own, warm hands holding him with so much love, shielding him from any dangers the world may bring.

"Sapnap," Karl's voice was slightly muffled by Sapnap's neck but the other nodded a bit, pushing for Karl to continue. Karl gripped at Sapnap's shirt a bit and he inhaled deeply, feeling the scent of Sapnap fill his senses.

"I'm in love with you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O_O


	14. Isn't This Perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go on a date?????? Maybe???? Idk read to find out.

Karl was met with dead silence, somewhat expected.

The moon shined bright into the dark room, wind whipped outside, a branch scraped on the outside of the building. Soft and anxious breaths filled their air.

After a few more moments passed, Karl looked up at Sapnap's face. "Sap?" He asked, voice soft in the dead silent night and he was met with a loud snore, flushing when he realized he had spoken to no one. 

Karl's chest tightened, tears filled his eyes, his hands fisted into the younger's shirt, his lips quivered and he bit it to stop it, hoping to hold back any tears or sobs that wanted to escape him.

Of course.

Because of course this would happen.

It had been happening the whole day, why had he expected this confession to turn out any different?

Maybe the universe just really didn't want him to confess. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

Maybe Karljust wasn't meant to confess, because they wouldn't work, or the universe was trying to protect Karl because he'd be rejected.

Even though he was tired, his body and mind exhausted, it took him a bit to fall asleep after that, too many thoughts filling and swirling in his head.

Should he even try to confess again? Was he even going to be able to? Was this going to ruin something between them?

He'd answered the last question countless times and even though the answer always ended up being "no," he couldn't help but fear the worst.

Even though he knew if Sapnap didn't feel the same, he'd never hate him. Even if he knew that Sapnap could never hate him because that was just how Sapnap was, he couldn't help the fear.

Karl finally felt sleepness wash over him and he expected the same dream, the same stupid nightmare that's been plaguing his thoughts countless nights in a row, but instead of shivering, instead of being met with cold brisk air, he was standing in a garden.

Karl looked around and felt a soft smile stretch across his lips as he found himself standing in a flower field, the field going on as far as he could see, flowers of all different colors filling the field. A few bees buzzed about, a flock of birds passed by overhead, a deer and a few fawns frolicked in an area where the grass was more cut.

Karl looked down and found that the tall grass went up to his knees, similar as to how the snow did the first few nights, except he could move with freedom now.

Karl walked about a bit, looking down and finding his same old minecraft hoodie, except now it was inverted, like how he'd changed it for Tales. He looked back up to see a giant tree off in the distance.

Karl smiled and looked up at the sky, laughing a bit at the giant puffy clouds that swirled in the sky, making various, obvious, shapes. Some hearts, some swirls, one even managed to look like Minecraft Steve.

Karl felt warmth spread throughout his body as he stretched his arms up, inhaling deeply as the sun beamed down on his face, soft winds tousling his hair and he slowly opened his eyes again.

He turned and decided to walk over to the large oak tree up in the distance, two wood swing sets hanging down. One of them was swinging back and forth and Karl realized it was because someone was sitting in it.

Curiosity grew and he broke out into a run, stopping and leaning against the back of the tree for a moment to catch his breath, leaning down and brushing off some flower petals that had stuck to his pant legs.

Once he'd caught his breath he walked around to the other side, smiling as the other person turned to him. A familiar, yet somewhat unfamiliar, face faced him with a warm and inviting smile.

"Hey Karl," Sapnap greeted as he swung back and forth and Karl noticed his hair was longer and black, a white bandana flowing in the window. He was reminded of his own apparel as he looked down at the green swirl briefly before looking at the flame emblem on the others shirt.

Karl moved over and sat on the second swing that hung from a branch next to him, swinging gently alongside Sapnap.

"Hey," Karl greeted back, voice just as warm and gentle and Sapnap smiled. "So," The other started and looked at Karl sideways. "You're going to tell him, right?"

Karl shrugged as he swung. "What's the point?" He mumbled. "Everytime I try, something goes wrong."

"Because it's not the right moment." Sapnap responded, like it was obvious and Karl rolled his eyes. "Then when is?"

"You'll know." Sapnap responded and smirked at him, Karl blushing a bit and turning his head away.

"He's leaving tomorrow anyway, it's not like we'll get much time to go on dates." Karl said a bit glum. A warm and tan hand was reaching out to him. It moved up and held his chin, turning his head to face Sapnap.

Karl looked him in the eyes and Sapnap smiled softly.

"Hey, don't think like that. You guys are close enough you can visit." He says, voice gentle and the hand moved to rest against Karl's cheek, the other leaning into it with a red face.

"But," He sighed. "It'll be hard."

"It will be, but since when has anything worth it been easy? You love him, so it'll be worth it. The long distance dating works for Red and Ant, doesn't it?" Sapnap pointed out and Karl sighed.

"But... we're different than them." Karl mumbled and finally looked Sapnap in the eyes. The ravenette smiled softly at him. "Yeah, yeah you guys are, but that doesn't mean you can't try."

Karl nodded weakly and looked down, moving in his swing a bit so he could be closer.

"You want this, right?" Sapnap asked, voice soft and Karl tilted his head to the side, looking out at the field of flowers, the sun shining orange light across the grass, the warmth of Sapnap's hand against his cheek, the longing in his chest, the craving for the warm hands to hold him.

Karl nodded. "I want this so bad," He replied, voice cracking a bit and he looked at Sapnap again.

"Then you have to go get it," He replied simply and pressed his lips gently against Karl's. Karl smiled into the kiss and closed his eyes, wanting to reach out and hold Sapnap but resisting against his better judgement.

After a moment, Karl pulled back and opened his eyes, a small pang rippling through his chest when he saw Sapnap had disappeared.

Karl turned in the swing again to face the fields properly and swung back and forth a bit.

He wanted this.

He wanted this so bad.

He wanted the warmth.

He wanted the love he'd felt a few moments before.

He wanted Sapnap.

Karl closed his eyes again and inhaled deeply, leaning his head back only to be met with a soft mattress.

He frowned as he opened his eyes, not having wanted to wake up yet but blushing when he felt the arms around him.

Karl twisted in Sapnap's arms to look at his face, the other still snoring away but the room was significantly brighter now.

It was like the first morning, but this time, Karl didn't pull away in embarrassment. He leaned in closer, smiling goofily to himself as he noted how perfect he fit in Sapnap's arms, almost like a puzzle.

This is what he wanted.

He wanted this just for him.

He wanted this everyday.

He wanted to be Sapnap's.

He wanted Sapnap's to be his.

Karl let out a soft hum as he snuggled more into the other and felt Sapnap stir awake.

"Hey," A soft, groggy voice greeted him and Karl looked at him and smiled. "Hey," His own voice groggy with sleep and Karl giggled happily at the soft smile Sapnap gave him in return.

Karl wanted this.

Karl wanted this to be his.

But now wasn't the right moment.

He didn't know how, but as right as this felt, it didn't feel Right.

Begrudgingly, Karl pulled away after a few minutes and stretched. "We gotta get breakfast." Karl said and Sapnap groaned, trying to pull him back down by grabbing the smaller's wrist.

"I wanna sleep." Sapnap replied and Karl laughed as he tried to free his wrist from Sapnap's grasp.

"You gotta get up, we only have like, 10 hours left until you leave." Karl said, a bit sadly and Sapnap made a sleepy whining noise.

"Can't I just lay here all day with you cuddled in my arms?" Sapnap mumbled and Karl felt his chest fill with love and warmth and he wanted to tell him right then and there but decided against it.

It wasn't the moment yet.

"Sap, c'mon," Karl joked and twisted his wrist so he was now holding Sapnap's arm and tried to pull him out.

"Fine, I'll get up, but I want cuddles." Sapnap said and Karl rolled his eyes.

"Fine, you can have cuddles. Later." Karl stated and Sapnap smiled softly. "For now, get up, I have plans for today."

Sapnap sat up at that and smiled.

"Alright man with the plans. I'll get ready." Karl smiled at him and left him be as the other got ready to change.

Karl shut the door behind him and leaned against it, a soft smile gracing his features and Chris smiled as he passed him.

"You tell him?" He asked and Karl shook his head. "Not yet, planning on it though." Karl said and Chris smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Well you two have fun, I'm going to be helping the others pack and go get souvenirs since we never got to it yesterday." Chris said and Karl nodded.

Half an hour later and Karl was walking with Sapnap, leading him down the side of the road as they talked.

"So where is my great knight taking me?" Sapnap asked and Karl rolled his eyes and smiled.

"I saw a breakfast place on the way here, it's the one food place we haven't hit up yet and before you say anything, I already stole your wallet so you aren't allowed to pay." Karl said with a cheeky smile and Sapnap shook his head.

"There's no way you-" Sapnap cut himself off as he felt his pockets and then his back pockets and then his jacket pockets and Karl smiled, holding up the Haikyuu!! themed wallet in the air and reaching his arm away from Sapnap.

"You bet I did." Karl said and shoved it in his own pocket, Sapnap huffing.

"Okay, fine, breakfast place." Sapnap mumbled. "What else?"

"There's a zoo. They have strict requirements because of Corona and stuff but it's still open. Plus I don't know how interested you would be but there's an art museum we could go to and a donut place everyone on Twitter told me to check out." Karl said and Sapnap smiled.

"Mr. Jacobs, is this a date?" Sapnap asked and Karl looked at him, face red.

Now wasn't the moment.

Not yet.

But that didn't mean he couldn't tease him a bit.

Karl simply smiled and faced forward again. "If you want it to be," He answered coyly and was met with a stuttering mess as Sapnap tripped over his feet and Karl laughed, walking up the steps to the restaurant and opening the door 

Karl hid his laughter as Sapnap followed in and they were seated in the far back together.

Soon they were laughing over inside jokes and simple dumbassery as they munched on their food.

They switched back and forth from making fun of their friends, telling dumb stories and talking about future plans.

"So Dream and I actually plan to move in together in a few weeks, we aren't telling fans and shit yet but we're gonna try out living together." Sapnap informed and Karl smiled.

"Really? Are you moving to his or is he moving to yours?" Karl asked, face flushed with laughter and feeling positively giddy.

"I'm moving to Florida and we're gonna rent a house there. When the pandemic is finally over George is gonna join us also." Sapnap said.

"What about school for you? Are you changing or going online?" 

"I'm gonna finish this semester online and then transfer over to Dream's college since we're both going as compsci majors." Sapnap said and Karl smiled.

That's awesome for you dude." Karl said and Sapnap hummed. 

"Hopefully you and me will be able to hang out in person more." Sapnap said and Karl smiled. "That was a bit random, but yeah. I'm gonna miss you when you leave." Karl mumbled a bit sadly.

Sapnap looked at him for a moment before picking up his phone.

Karl sat in content in the silence as he finished up his breakfast, placing his napkins and utensils on his plate as he cleaned up his mess and jumped when his phone went off.

My boy's got his own ringtone-

Karl's face turned red as he fumbled with his pockets and Sapnap giggled a bit.

Karl turned his sound off and covered his phone, eyes wide as he looked at the other and Sapnap just smiled at him. "You never explained that by the way," Sapnap commented and Karl turned even redder.

"I- Uh it's- Uhm," He cleared his throat. "It's a ringtone."

"Yeah, I heard it." Sapnap then began to sing the song. "My boys got his own ringtone, it's the only one I know. Do you consider me your boy, Karl?"

Karl turned red and in a brief moment of confidence, he sat up and cleared his throat. "Yes." He said and Sapnap raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?" He questioned and Karl nodded, making eye contact and smiling.

"Yes." 

Sapnap didn't respond, cleaning up his mess and waving over for the bill. Karl paid quickly and Sapnap grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the restaurant.

Sapnap kept pulling Karl along until they met another edge of a dry cliff. Sapnap grabbed Karl's other hand and faced him, looking down at their hands.

"Karl," Sapnap's voice wavered a bit.

"Do you-" He coughed and then cleared his throat. "Do you like me?"

"Yeah, of course Sapnap." Karl said easily.

"No- I mean like, do you like me? Like, like like me?" Sapnap asked and Karl hummed, cupping the side of Sapnap's cheek, butterflies dancing in his stomach.

Karl felt like a tornado was forming inside him, emotions flying everywhere, fear of ruining this, fear it wouldn't work out, fear he was taking this the wrong way.

But there was also hope. Hope Sapnap liked him the way he did, hope they could make this work, hope they'd be happy together and could see each other again.

And there was also anxiety. He was anxious of what the fans would think, what their friends would think, Quackity briefly crossed his mind too for some reason and Karl sighed, making his decision on what he was going to do.

"Sapnap." The mentioned man looked up into Karl's eyes and Karl inhaled deeply.

It was going to take a lot for him to say this.

He just hoped Sapnap wouldn't hate him.

"No, I don't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POV: author runs for safety as all the readers come to murder them.
> 
> Hahahhhh how do you guys like this cliffhanger? Hm? Also shout-out to that one person who said they knew it wasn't gonna go right last chapter because you called it XD
> 
> Anyone know why Karl said that? Any theories as to why he said he doesn't???? I'll try to upload the next chapter sooner I promise.
> 
> Anyway Im working on another multi chaptered fic, it's gonna be a highschool au and it's gonna be karlnapity focused with other ships in the background. Also football because I like to pretend I know how the game is played.
> 
> As always, check out my socials  
> Twitter: sonayesul  
> Tiktok: literally_chaos (may be posting cosplay videos based off this hmmm)  
> Cosplay insta: literally_chaos  
> Art insta: sonayesul
> 
> Also I know I said this already but I guess some people didn't see, you dont need to ask to put this in fic recs, draw fanart based off it or cosplay because the answer is hell yeah go for it!!!! Tag me wherever you post it so I can see it and hype you up!!!!


	15. Karl Why Do You Do This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An emotional conversation happens and the day goes by faster than anyone would've liked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHAHAHAHA IM SORRY FOR THIS AND THE LAST TWO CHAPTERS BECAUSE OF THE CLIFFHANGERS AND CONTENT BUT I HOPE YOU GUYS STILL ENJOY THIS STORY AFTER

Sapnap's eyes widened and he dropped Karl's hand. Karl felt his chest pang when Sapnap took a step back away from him, shaking a bit.

"You don't?" Sapnap's voice was soft, broken as the wind carried it away and Karl inhaled deeply and shook his head, keeping his own head low so he didn't have to look Sapnap in his eyes. 

"But I-" Sapnap cleared his throat and his words were left unsaid.

Karl knew Sapnap was probably going to hate him for this, but he decided that this was the way it needed to be done. Chris might yell at him later for it too.

Sapnap furrowed his brows, he was almost sure that Karl felt the same about him, so was it because of something else? Was there- Was there some other reason he didn't feel the same way?

He didn't want to be greedy, he didn't want to make Karl hate him, but he refused to believe that Karl didn't feel the same.

Maybe it was the stress of the viewers? The long distance? 

"Is it 'cause of the fans?" Sapnap asked, voice soft and Karl sighed a bit, swallowing harshly as he shifted in his stance. He hated the hurt look on Sapnap's face, but he knew that soon they'd be laughing again as always, so it was worth it for now. "It has nothing to do with them," Karl mumbled.

Sapnap started to fidget and looked away. "Is it just 'cause you don't feel the same?" Sapnap mumbled. "You don't like me?"

"No, I don't, I'm sorry." Karl said, voice heavy with sadness as he took a step towards Sapnap, frowning when the younger took another step back. 

Karl reached over and grabbed his hand, trying to comfort him and Sapnap sniffled, wiping at tears. He decided he needed to fix this, he was hurting Sapnap with simple words he didn't even really mean.

"I don't 'like like' you, because we're not honking third graders, Sapnap." Karl said and Sapnap lifted his head in confusion.

"I don't just have a little crush on you that means I like you," Karl continued and rested his forehead against Sapnap's. "It's more than that, I'm so helplessly in love with you." Karl grabbed Sapnap's hand and smiled softly at the other.

Sapnap gasped out a bit, hand squeezing Karl's tightly for a moment. And then he huffed out harshly and pulled his hand away from Karl's again.

The older man looked at him in confusion for a minute before he was met with clearly upset eyes.

The younger boy pulled his arm back and punched Karl harshly, the other holding back laughter as he held his arm, Sapnap's tears gone in an instant.

"OMIGOD, I HATE YOU, I THOUGHT I WAS BEING REJECTED!" Sapnap yelled, face red and Karl covered his mouth as he smiled goofily. "I LEGIT THOUGHT YOU HATED ME, OMIGOD."

"Who could ever hate you," Karl said softly and Sapnap brought his hand up to his face to cover himself in embarrassment. "You're absolutely perfect in every way."

"Okay now you're just flirting." Sapnap mumbled, ears red. Karl moved closer a bit, the toes of their sneakers bumping against each other. 

"Sapnap, I love you, so, so much. I can't even place how long I've loved you because I've only really figured it out recently but I know I've been in love with you longer than that. All I want is to wake up in your arms everyday. I want to be able to call you and tell you 'I love you' and not have to worry about you finding the hidden meaning. I want to be able to compliment you and see your beautiful face turn red because you know what I'm saying is true." As Karl spoke, the redder Sapnap's face turned and the more he hid.

Karl pouted now and reached up, moving the other's hands from his face. "Sap, I wanna see how beautiful and handsome you are."

"You're just being all gushy I'm- You're putting me through a rollercoaster of emotions right now." Sapnap said and hugged Karl, burying his face in his neck and Karl chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I've been on a rollercoaster of my own this whole week. I wanted to tell you, but I never found the right time, and then that one day you thought stuff was going on with me and Chris and then the day after was just hell. I didn't get a chance or the confidence to tell you until now." Karl sniffled a bit.

"But I love you, more than anything on this entire planet." Karl confessed and Sapnap gripped at his shirt.

"You can't just say things like that, that easily, Jacobs." Sapnap whined and Karl laughed.

"I love you too." Sapnap admitted. "I love you so much also. I just didn't know how this would work out. And then- God, I know Chris is married but seeing him all close to you just made me upset. It's a problem, I get jealous too easily." 

"Well I find it attractive. Just don't kill my friends over it." Karl said and they both chuckled.

Sapnap pulled away a bit from the hug and his gaze flickered up and down for a moment as he shifted on his feet.

"Uhm, so does- Does this mean we're dating now?" Sapnap asked and Karl smiled. "If you want us to be."

"Yes," Sapnap responded quickly and Karl barked out with laughter at that. He reached a hand up and ran it through Sapnap's hair. "Okay, okay, so we're dating. We're boyfriends, yeah?" Karl confirmed and Sapnap nodded.

"Since- Since we're boyfriends can I-" He cleared his throat. "Can I kiss you?"

Karl felt the small fire that had been flickering in his chest since the conversation had started erupt into a bonfire at the question and he smiled widely.

"Of course you can."

No sooner had the words left his lips were Sapnap's on his.

Karl smiled happily into the kiss, this one feeling so much more solid and real and warm than the dream one.

Sapnap's hands held his waist, Karl's hand remaining on Sapnap's face, his other one moving to tangle itself in his short hair.

Slowly, their lips moved against each other and they stayed there, soaking in each other's warmth and love, not wanting to leave the other's grasp until they were both desperate for air.

The two pulled apart, both panting lightly as their forehead rested against each other gently.

Sapnap opened his eyes as he moved one hand to hold Karl's. 

"so," His voice was soft and careful, his lips brushing against Karl's as he spoke. "How is- How is this gonna work?"

Karl bit his lip a bit and pressed his lips against Sapnap's for a moment. "Well, how do Ant and Velvet do it? We can call each other, go on virtual dates, set up times for when we're free and visit each other?" Karl shrugged. "We'll figure it out, but right now I just wanna be here with you."

Sapnap smiled and pecked Karl's lips for a moment too. "You said something about going to a zoo?" Sapnap reminded and Karl smiled. "First date?" Karl asked and Sapnap grinned.

"I think this would be our second." Sapnap said. "The stars will be our first."

Karl blushed gently at that. "I was gonna kiss you then."

"Why didn't you?" 

"I was scared. Scared i'd lose you, that I'd ruin something. I wish I'd kissed you." Karl mumbled and Sapnap moved a hand to hold Karl's face, tilting his head a bit and pressing kisses to his cheeks.

"Me too, we could've had more time to be doing this." Sapnap said and Karl giggled as gentle kisses were placed all over his face. "Mm, but we got here eventually, that's all that matters."

"Sappy." Sapnap commented and Karl chuckled as someone behind them cleared their throat.

They pulled away to face the other person and found Chris crossing his arms, trying to hide a smile but failing. 

"Hi Chris," Karl greeted and cleared his throat when he'd realized his voice was a bit raspy.

"So you two got your shit figured out, I see." Chris commented and the three all chuckled.

"What're you doing here?" Karl asked but he was smiling as Sapnap pulled him a bit closer. "Came to tell you that Jimmy moved Sapnap's flight to 10, so you guys have two extra hours." Chris informed and Karl smiled.

"Thank you," He said. "And thank you for pushing me."

"Anytime." Chris said and moved forward and ruffled Karl's hair. Sapnap grunted at that and Chris and Karl laughed as the tallest of them backed up.

"Right, right, sorry. I don't have a death wish, I'll back off your man." Chris said and Karl snuggled his face into Sapnap's neck. "Jelly," Karl teased and Sapnap turned red. 

"Shut up," He replied and Karl giggled.

Chris smiled at them and looked behind him and sighed deeply.

"Guys, as proud of you guys as I am, be safe." Chris said and Karl frowned a bit sadly, nodding his head. "I know."

"It's- People suck, and this is still the South." Chris elaborated a bit when Sapnap threw a confused look. He bit his lip then and then pulled a bit away from Karl, their hands still tightly gripping each other.

"Alright, you two have fun, I'm so glad you got your shit together so I don't have to deal with Karl calling me every night for the next week going 'ohmigod i blew it!' I'll see you guys later." Chris waved them goodbye and Karl flushed at the comment.

Sapnap ignored him and tugged at Karl's hand a bit.

"Let's go. I don't have long left here today, I wanna spend it with you as much as possible."

The rest of the day went by a lot faster than either of them would've liked, one minute they were kissing each other lovingly by a cliffside and the next they sat outside a donut shop, eating frosted donuts peacefully as the sun began to set.

"Today was fun," Sapnap said and Karl nodded.

"I don't wanna leave." He said after a moment and Karl nodded again. 

"Neither do I. But we'll make it work. And I'll make sure we can see each other as much as possible." Karl promised. "I'm so glad you said something." 

"Me too, I just wish you'd worded your's better so I didn't have a heart attack." Sapnap said and Karl laughed, coughing as he choked on his donut for a bit and cleared his throat.

"Sorry, sorry, it was kind of funny though." Karl said with a toothy grin and Sapnap rolled his eyes. "For you, I thought I was about to have to move in with Dream and cry about how I ruined our friendship and delete all my socials." Sapnap said and Karl laughed again, scooting next to him and pressing a sugary kiss to his lips.

"I'm sorry about that, but you did ignore me for a whole day because you thought my married friend and I had stuff going on." Karl reminded and Sapnap picked at the sprinkles on his donut. "Fine, I guess it's fair then." He mumbled and Karl laughed.

"Hey, look at me, I want more kisses." Karl pouted and Sapnap lifted his head. "There's uhm-" Karl turned his head and frowned a bit, sitting up more and scooting a bit from Sapnap as a family walked into the shop.

"This sucks," Karl whined and Sapnap nodded, turning where he sat and leaning back as he looked at something else.

Karl tried to follow his gaze but Sapnap was yet again grabbing his hand and pulling him along. Karl stumbled as he followed and tossed the rest of his donut into a trash can as Sapnap pulled him behind the building into a small alleyway between the back of the shop and another store.

Karl was lightly pushed against the building wall and he let out a joyous giggle as Sapnap moved closer, their chests bumping a bit as Sapnap rest his head on Karl's shoulder.

Karl smiled and ran his hands through Sapnap's hair, fingers tangling in the soft short hair and Sapnap hummed. "I wanna just be here forever," Sapnap mumbled. "All wrapped up in your arms."

"Mm, me too," Karl said and Sapnap lifted his head and pressed a few kisses to Karl's cheek. "I don't wanna leave." Sapnap complained.

"I don't want you to leave either, but you know, life. At least I'm not still in New York or this would be a lot harder." Karl commented and Sapnap pecked his lips.

"But you're still far." He commented and Karl nodded.

"But I'm not right now," Karl reminded and Sapnap grinned. "That's true, I have you all to myself right now." As soon as the words left his mouth, Sapnap's was on Karl's.

Karl let out a surprised gasp at the suddeness but soon melted into his boyfriend.

And gosh, wow was that fun to say.

His boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

His.

At the start of the week, Karl had been panicked from Sapnap being there, he hadn't wanted to even touch the other, scared he'd ruin something from just being next to him, scared if he even spoke at night, his sleep deprived mind would reveal his secrets. He'd been so scared Sapnap would hate him, never talk to him again, ignore him for the rest of his life.

Never did he think he'd be pushed against the wall outside a donut shop making out with him.

Karl felt so much love swirl inside his chest, his entire body filling with warmth against the cold evening air. The body against his was almost a heater, trapping him in with heat and comfort, letting him know he was loved as hands held his waist and face gently.

Sapnap's lips moved oh so perfectly against Karl's, their lips slotting against each other like they were meant to perfectly fit together. Wind rushed down the alleyway, nipping at his ears and nose but Karl wouldn't back away for anything. Hell, if his lungs didn't demand it so much, he doubted he'd pull away for air.

Their kiss was sugary from the donuts they'd consumed, Karl could almost taste chocolate as he pressed more into the kiss. Sapnap huffed gently at the slight jelly taste from Karl but also pressed into the kiss.

Sapnap's hand that rested on his waist shuffled a bit so it rested under his sweater, massaging small circles into the skin underneath and Karl hummed at it as Sapnap pulled back to press kisses along his jaw.

Karl watched with half lidded eyes, purely in love with the man on him and flushed bright red when he heard someone go "Uhhhhhh."

Sapnap pulled away quickly from Karl and they turned to be met with a short teenager, their eyes wide as they looked at the two, trash bag in their hands.

"I'm just-" They cleared their throat for a moment. "Sorry for the intrusion." They said and quickly put the trash bag on the ground next to the door and awkwardly shuffled back inside.

Sapnap and Karl met each other's gazes again, faces flushed and eyes wide before they broke out into laughter, resting against each other as they sank to the ground, giggling.

"We should head back." Karl said softly and Sapnap made a whining noise. "But I wanna stay here with you." He said and Karl smiled.

"If we go back, I can give you those cuddles I promised you earlier." Karl said and Sapnap sat up straight, looking at him and nodding. "Okay let's go back," Ha agreed and Karl laughed as he was pulled to his feet.

The two looked at each other for a moment and Karl pecked Sapnpa's lips for a moment.

"I love you." Karl said, love spewing out of his words and filling Sapnap's heart.

"I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment shout outs and responses:
> 
> Bug_boy22: I hope my thyroid is safe now ahjsabhj  
> shoutout to Arrowsboi for basically guessing this entire chapter with ""No I don't." "Oh." "I fucking love you you dumbass now come give me kisses.""  
> I'm sorry forgotten_code for making you cry I hope this fixed it  
> RuralWinnie with a simple "What the fuck." Was the funniest comment I read thank you XD
> 
> Also I know it seems like this is the end but guys, c'mon, guys, you know me..... You know meeeeee, there's still like three chapters at least left.
> 
> May or may not be more angst because oops I guess I lied when I said the rest would be fluff because this took a different turn.
> 
> But I hope this cute fluffy chapter of them just being in love and goofs has made up for that cliffhanger.
> 
> Also shoutout to basically everyone who realized i pulled the classic "i don't like you i love you" trope lololol
> 
> Anyway, I made some Karl cosplay tiktoks in the snow based off his dreams so yall should check that out on Literally_Chaos on tiktok.... just saying.


	16. Stop Making Out For Five Seconds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They say goodbye and cry

Chris turned the radio up as he drove, staring harshly at the black and yellow concrete before him as he felt a kick against the back of his chair.

"Guys, please," Chris said and he heard Karl giggle behind him.

"He said the thing," Karl whispered and Sapnap chuckled.

Chris got to a stoplight and turned in his seat, face deadpanned as he turned to see Karl sitting in Sapnap's lap, their arms wrapped around each other and they had obviously been making out.

"I told Jimmy I'd drive you guys so he wouldn't have to deal with this shit but hey, spoiler alert, I don't want to hear you two getting off behind me either." Chris said and turned back to face the road.

"We're not doing that!" Karl argued. "We're just kissing."

"Whatever, just don't break anything," Chris said, giving up and Karl smiled, turning back to Sapnap.

Sapnap's hands were warm on his smaller waist, holding him gently and with so much care that Karl felt like he was going to explode.

Sapnap's flight left in an hour and they would arrive at the airport in a few minutes. Karl didn't want him to leave and Sapnap didn't want to leave either, but they didn't want to spend the rest of the day worrying about it, they wanted to have as many happy memories before they parted.

Sapnap leaned up a bit and kissed Karl, smiling as Karl giggled a bit, shifting and accidentally kicking the back of Chris' seat again. He heard the other sigh and ignored it, paying attention to his boyfriend.

"Gonna miss you," Karl said and Sapnap hummed as he pressed kisses all over his face. "Me too," He said, voice soft and Chris made a gagging noise.

"You gotta call me as soon as you land, I still have this hellish ride back you know." Karl said and Sapnap giggled. "I'll call you, no worries. You can hear that same ringtone again."

Karl turned red at that and hid his face in Sapnap's neck, smiling with a red face as Sapnap rubbed his back, also laughing. "I'm never gonna live this down, will I?" Karl mumbled.

"No, but I love it," Sapnap teased and Karl groaned as Sapnap ruffled his hair a bit. "And if it wasn't for it, I wouldn't have even considered confessing really so, it was worth it." 

Karl pulled back and looked at him. "wait, what really?" He asked and Sapnap nodded.

"I asked Chris if it had any meaning and he told me it's not his place blah blah but that it is a love song and well i.... It gave me hope that it was meant to be for me so I guess I kind of owe it to that." Sapnap number.

"AWWW! Baby!" Karl cooed and Sapnap turned red as Karl cupped his face and pressed kisses all over it.

"Alright you lovebugs, we're here. We have to go through check in." Chris said and Sapnap and Karl pouted as they climbed off each other.

Karl helped free Sapnap's bags from where they were wedged into the trunk and the three of them all waked in, going through security checks and such.

Karl held Sapnap's carry on and wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold the other's hand, but the airport was so packed he had to resist against it.

Sapnap would throw him an occasional loving glance, very obviously wanting to do the same and Karl would smile widely underneath his mask 

After going through check in, they all relaxed against a bench, Chris leaving for a moment when his wife called him and left the two alone.

Karl's knee moved over and pressed against Sapnap's the younger smiling softly and leaning back a bit, looking at the high airport ceiling.

"I'm gonna miss you so much," Sapnap's voice was soft and almost broken.

"Me too," Karl said and chuckled wetly. "It's kind of funny, but I wish we hadn't met up so I wouldn't have to miss you when you leave."

"Same, especially now that I know what it feels like to touch you," Sapnap's voice dropped to a whisper as he catiously glanced around. "To hold you in my arms and kiss you."

"You can't just say things like that," Karl brought his sweater up to cover his face and laughed weakly. "You're going to make my heart hurt more." 

"Sorry," Sapnap mumbled and quickly looked around, reaching over and grabbing Karl's hand.

Karl squeezed it and sighed.

"It hurts even more knowing we can't just like, hug each other or kiss each other until we part." Karl mumbled. "Stupid homophobia." 

Sapnap nodded. "It's getting better, but yeah, it sucks." 

Someone screamed their names and their hands were apart instantly as they looked over at the small group of teens rushing over.

"Are you guys Sapnap and Karl?" A teen boy asked and Karl fired his eyes to smile as he sat up 

"Yeah! Who're you guys?" 

They spent the next half hour talking to the group of teens, taking pictures and answering the few questions they had until Chris came over and shooed them away.

Sapnap's flight was called for them to start seating and Karl felt like crying.

He just got him. He just finally got him and now he has to leave and he knew it was stupid to be crying because they could still call and visit but he never wanted this feeling to end.

Sapnap grabbed his hand again as they walked to the doors where Sapnap would have to walk through to get on his plane.

Chris stood back to give them space as they got ready to say goodbye.

Karl looked down at the ground and sniffled a bit as he tried to push out his words.

"Fuck it," Sapnap mumbled and wrapped Karl into a hug. Karl started to sob harshly as he buried his face in his neck, gripping at the cloth tightly as if he'd never let go.

The flight attendant that stood at the doors gave them a disgusted look but welcomed others in, ignoring them.

"Shhh, babe, honey, it'll be fine, I'll call you the moment I land and we can plan for our next met up." Sapnap said into his ear and Karl nodded and then shook his head.

"But you're still leaving me. I won't be able to just hug you whenever I want." Karl said weakly and Sapnap rubbed his back and pulled away.

"Babe, look at me." Karl lifted his head and wiped at his teary eyes.

Sapnap pulled his mask down and used his other hand to push Karl's down a bit, pressing their lips together quickly before pulling back.

He thinks he heard someone squeal, squeek? It was probably the flight attendant a few feet away again.

Karl turned bright red and gripped Sapnap's hand.

"Thank you," he mumbled. "I love you." 

"I love you too Jacobs. And I will be back again to get a better kiss from you, you better get your ass." Sapnap said and Karl chuckled.

"You better." 

His flight was called again over the loudspeaker, last warning before takeover and Karl squeezed his hand again.

"Goodbye." Karl mumbled.

"Not goodbye." Sapnap said. "See you later."

Karl smiled weakly and nodded. "See you later." 

Sapnap slowly pulled his hand back and walked through the gates, the flight attendant following and closing the doors as the flight got ready to leave.

Karl broke down again and Chris walked over, throwing his arm around his shoulder and patting his back.

"I'm gonna miss him." Karl mumbled.

"I know you are man, but you'll see him again soon. Promise." Chris said and Karl smiled as they walked back to the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha imagine thinking it'd just be fluffy ...... Guys I swear I tried to make this chapter have zero angst but my finger slipped Lmao 
> 
> Also I know it says out of 18 chapter but that is very subject to change because I have a basic idea for why I want to do but it could change so it's there for now lol


	17. Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl just wants to be happy with Sapnap.
> 
> Why can't he have that

Karl climbed out of the car, stretching his entire body as he grabbed his luggage from Jimmy's trunk.

"Bye man! See you next week!" Chandler yelled and Karl waved goodbye as he walked into his house.

He put his luggage against the wall and face planted into his bed.

It had been an extremely long car ride back, he had slept for a good eight hours at the start while waiting for Sapnap to call, spending those hours dreaming about simply cuddling with him and never having to let him go, then called him and talked about random minecraft plot stuff for the SMP (Jimmy had allowed him to call with the one exception he wouldn't have to listen to them being all gushy and romantic)

Karl finally had time to just rest on his own comfy and soft bed for a few minutes and just sighed happily, turning on his back now and pulling out his phone.

He quickly swiped away all notifications he'd gotten from twitter and discord and opened up his music app, putting on a random love song he'd found and smiled as he rested back.

He was so helplessly in love with Sapnap.

And now they were together.

It happened literally overnight.

It felt like a fantasy come true, his one dream came true, he felt like a disney princess who finally got with the prince of her dreams.

Karl had to pinch his arm to make sure it was real, smiling goofily to himself as he curled into his blankets.

He loved Sapnap, and, he can't believe he can actually say this, Sapnap loves him too.

And they were dating.

Yeah, sure, they were long distant, they wouldn't be able to cuddle as much as they would like, they wouldn't be able to kiss and such, but they could still call, visit, and gush to each other for hours.

Karl hugged his pillow with the widest smile as he actually let the past few days wash over him.

He's gotten to fall asleep in Sapnap's arms, he got to hug him, cuddle with him, have a date underneath the stars, be close to him, feel him, kiss him, tell him how much he loves him.

Karl felt like a highschooler discovering they had a crush on someone for the first time as the giddiness finally settled down and he fished his phone out and turned off the sappy songs.

He saw a text from Sapnap and smiled widely.

Sapnap: Hey, we never discussed this but do we tell the fans we're dating?

KArl read the words a few times as he thought. He wanted to scream to the world that he was with Sapnap, tell every person who'd stop and listen about how much he loved Sapnap.

But he knew realistically if he did, his viewers would drop significantly and his comments would be flooded with either things hating on them or being gross about them.

He was actually quite terrified of if the fans found out.

They'd get hated on on twitter by homophobic people, 13 year old girls would gush about how they were their "uwu soft gay bois" and the general audeince may not be bothered but he knows they'd be speculating everything about their relationship.

Not to mention if his parents found out. He never really came out to them, he realized he liked guys only just a bit before realizing he liked Sapnap and wasn't prepared for that rollercoaster. He knew they'd accept them, but they'd be upset that he never told them.

Karl sighed as he typed out his response.

Karl: I think it's best if we don't

Sapnap: That's what I was kind of thinking.

Sapnap: But that doesn't mean I won't flirt with you cause we already do

Karl laughed out loud at that and turned red.

Sapnap: Alright now go get some sleep 

Sapnap: You stayed up that whole end of the car ride, I wanna call you again but I wanna call a well rested Karl alright?

Karl: Finefine, I'll sleep

Karl: But only for you <3

Sapnap: Alright

Sapnap: Love you, call you tomorrow morning <3333

Karl giggled again and turned his phone off, snuggling into his pillow and letting his heavy eyes fall shut.

Once his vision was full of pitch darkness and he basically melted into his bed, he felt the ground around him move and sat up, eyes open.

His vision was met with bright light and he winced as his eyes adjusted, feelings grass underneath his hands and looking around.

His vision was blocked completely by tall grass that surronded him.

He stood up, finding himself back in the garden and smiled to himself as he raised his arms up the sky, letting out joyous laughter as he felt the sun beat down on his pale skin.

He jumped a bit and twirled, smiling as he then raced over to the tree he knew was there.

Karl felt energy course through his veins as he leaned against the tree to catch his breath, smiling as he walked around the tree.

He was met with a soft smile and warm eyes, motioning for Karl to sit with him.

Karl went to sit down on the swing but fell to the ground with an 'oomf' as the scene changed, him and Sapnap sitting on a picnic blanket.

Sapnap offered a sandwich to him and Karl took it graciously, smiling softly.

"So you did it," Sapnap commented as he took a bit into his own sandwich. Karl smiled widely. "Yeah, I did." 

"Any regrets?"

"Only that I didn't do it sooner."

"Scared for the future?" 

"Not at all." Karl said, eating his own sandwich, hardly noting the fact it didn't really taste like anything.

Sapnap looked at him, their eyes locking and Karl shifted under the intense gaze.

Karl looked down at the white bread uncomftably.

"You should be." Sapnap said and Karl furrowed his brows. 

"What?" He lifted his head and immediately his breathing picked up as the temperature dropped immediately.

He looked around to find himself standing in the middle of the snow again, but the snow was hardly five inches this time.

Karl felt panic rise in his chest as he turned around and started to run.

His body shook with the cold, slowly his body warmed up a bit as he moved about, the snow falling harder the faster he ran.

"Sapnap!" Karl yelled out.

Why was he here?

He didn't like it here, here was bad, here was cold and lonely.

He was met with silence, the only noise to be heard were his footsteps crunching along the snow and the wind whistling past his ears.

"SAPNAP!?" Karl yelled and felt snow weigh down on him and he fell to his knees, shaking as he felt the coldness spread along his body.

A warm hand was placed in his hair and he looked up, finding a figure, their face shadowed from their position.

"Sapnap?" Karl whispered out and the hand gripped his hair, pushing his face down into the snow.

Karl cried out in brief pain as he tried to sit up, the hand keeping him still as he face was buried in the frozen snow.

A knee was pressed into his back, keeping his entire body down as snow fell around him faster.

Karl could feel icy start to seep into his clothes, hoodie getting wet as the snow melted against him, back hurting as the knee pressed harder and the snow turned into ice.

After a few painful minutes of being pressed down, the knee and hand were removed.

Karl gasped out and cried as he tried to sit up, trapped under the few feet of snow on top of him.

"Sapnap?" Karl whispered, voice hoarse from yelling and crying.

"Karl?" A voice spoke and Karl gasped. "SAPNAP! SAP! HELP!" He yelled out and felt hands digging at the snow.

"Karl!" The voice was now distinguishable as Sapnap and Karl felt the snow get lifted and pulled away and he sat up, crying.

when he opened his eyes, he was back in his bedroom, sun shining through his windows and Karl lifted a hand to his cheek, wiping away at tears.

He let out a shaky sob and touched his night shirt, panicking when he felt it was wet. After a moment he let out a shaky sigh, realizing it was just from a night sweat.

His phone started ringing and he jumped as he fumbled with it, grumbling to himself at the low percentage, having not plugged it in the night before, and answered it.

"Sap?" Karl cried out, voice still shaky and sad.

"Karl, have you been on twitter?" Sapnap's voice was panicked and caring at the same time.

"No- no, sorry, bad dream." Karl mumbled shakily.

Sapnap was silent for a moment, inhaling deeply.

"Karl, have you been on twitter at all today?" He asked.

"No, no why?" Karl asked, trying to calm himself down a bit.

"Okay, Karl, please don't be mad." Sapnap's voice was pleading.

Karl started to panic again.

"Sapnap, I couldn't ever be mad at you, what's happening?"

"I-" Sapnap was silent again.

"I'm sorry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this literally wasn't meant to be angsty but it happened and uhhhhh yeah.
> 
> Anyway I crocheted and entire octopus today and his name is Baby Oswald.
> 
> Also my Twitter is now Literally_Chaos, not sonayesul


	18. #exposed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which case I feature how much the bird app flipping sucks because this is probably exactly how twitter would react

Karl was fully awake now, still wiping away tears and honestly a little upset at Sapnap's refusal to give him a straight answer.

"Sorry for what?" Karl asked, his leg bouncing as he picked at a seam on his bed.

"Just-" Sapnap cleared his throat. "Check twitter." 

And then the dial tone rang out.

Karl angrily chucked his phone at a pile of clothes he had and buried his face in his hands.

Why wasn't Sapnap just telling him what was up? He hated this anticipation, but at the same time, whatever he was stressing about was freaking him out now.

Karl took a moment to calm down, wiping tears away from his face as he mentally prepared himself for whatever bullshit was going on on twitter.

What else was new though, it was twitter, there was always drama, especially with their community. But whatever it was, Sapnap had been really shaken up about it.

Karl stood up, fished his phone out of the pile of his clothes and plugged it in. He decided he'd wait a bit before checking. Whatever it was, it was too early for it.

Not to mention he'd just been sleep traumatized on top of all this.

Karl shuffled about in his room, changing out of his gross shirt into a new one, throwing a sweater on over it as he trudged down to his kitchen.

He groggily made coffee, something he didn't normally drink but he felt like now was a good time for it, and slumped against the counter as he waited for his toast to pop.

Once he finished his breakfast and was finally fully conscious, he walked up to his bedroom and grabbed his phone.

He swiped away the multiple notifications once more and opened up the stupid bird app.

Immediately his face fell and his previously calm state changed to a panicked one as he scrolled through his timeline.

"Nonononono," he mumbled, eyes wide as they scanned over the multiple posts his friends were retweeting or liking or that were recommended to him.

All his friends were yelling at others, spamming reports, trying to diffuse the situation and saying that everyone just had the wrong idea when there was very obviously no room for argument.

He opened up discord and found a lot of pings from his discord, the dream SMP discord and a lot of dms from his worried friends.

He ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm his breathing and opened up Messenger, heart dropping when he saw a message from his mom and his sister and brother.

"Fuck," he mumbled, eyes wide as he stared at the screen and jumped when his phone started ringing.

He answered it immediately.

"How did this happen?" Karl asked his boyfriend frantically, who hadn't even gotten a word out yet.

"Karl, I am so sorry," Sapnap apologized, desperate.

"Sap, it's not your fault," Karl scrolled through twitter some more, only one photo covering his whole timeline.

In the photo, Sapnap held Karl in his arm, the other one tugging down his mask as their lips connected, Karl's face red as his hands gripped at Sapnap's waist.

And it was there for everyone to see.

Whether or not Karl wanted them too.

Fuck.

"It is my fault cause if I hadn't kissed you before we left there wouldn't have been a photo to take." Sapnap apologized again.

"No, Sapnap, listen to me, did you take the photo? No. Did you post it? No. It's not your fault." Karl informed and took the phone off speaker, pressing it against his ear.

"Who's the original poster?" Karl asked as he paced his room, heart racing, palms sweating, hands fidgeting.

"Some girl with the user 'karlnap.wasfound', I already asked her to take it down but she blocked me." Sapnap explained and Karl groaned.

"What the hell, I didn't want to be outed. Especially not like this." Karl felt like crying. They knew. They all knew, his mom, his family, their fans, they all knew and he wasn't ready.

He had hardly come to actual terms with who he was, what he identified as and he wanted to come out in his way, on his own time, when he was ready.

"I know, I'm sorry." Sapnap repeated.

"Sapnap, I love you but you're actually making me frustrated that you keep blaming yourself." Karl said and Sapnap went quiet. "Stop blaming yourself for something that isn't your fault and is completely out of your control."

"... Okay." Sapnap mumbled and Karl smiled softly once his boyfriend accepted the fact.

Karl sighed as his phone started ringing.

Karl pulled away briefly and felt like he was about to throw up all of his organs when he read the caller ID, heart pounding harder, head feeling fuzzy and a slight buzzing filled his head.

He shakingly brought the phone back to his ear.

"I-I gotta go, my mo-mom's calling me. I love you." Karl said softly. 

"I love you too." Sapnap said and Karl hung up, answering his mom's call and immediately being met with her normal calm and caring voice.

"Honey why didn't you tell us?" She asked.

Karl wiped away tears from his face and sniffled. "I-" He felt way too overwhelmed.

It was too much.

Too much at once.

He fell to the floor, sobbing.

"Mommy, I'm sorry," He mumbled. 

"Honey, Karl, no, sweetie, please don't be upset! We all still love you the same! I just wanted to know why you hadn't told us sooner!" His mom tried to comfort.

"I didn't- I didn't even know, not until recently." Karl mumbled. "I had just figured out all of this, just got with Sapnap and I wanted to tell you, I was going to when I was ready but I wasn't ready yet and now it's a mess-" He broke out into more sobs.

"Karl, I'm sorry this happened to you," Another voice chimed in and Karl sniffled. "Sean?" He called out.

"I'm here too," His sister chimed in. "We're all sorry this happened this way. We all love and support you so much Karl."

"Thank you, Corry," Karl was still sobbing and shaking on his floor but felt a wave of peace flow over him, knowing his family in fact didn't hate him.

"I hate the internet," Sean mumbled and Karl laughed weakly. "Me too," He agreed.

"Honey, if you want, we can drive down a weekend soon and visit." His mom offered and Karl sniffled.

"Please," He asked and she hummed. "Absolutely. Now, I know this has been a sad call, and I don't want to leave on a bittersweet note, so let's talk about something else instead."

Karl chuckled and nodded, leaning back against his bed while sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, so we just filmed a new video for the Mr. Beast channel and it was another Last One challenge," Karl began, a soft smile gracing his lips.

He spent the next hour and a half talking to his family, Sean chiming in about school, Corry talking about her boyfriend and what he'd done for her birthday, his mom talking about a failed chili recipe she'd tried until eventually, someone else called Karl.

Karl begrudgingly bid them a farewell and answered his other call.

God, it feels like that's all he's been doing.

"Okay, so I know you've already seen everything so I just wanted to tell you if you want, I can get my lawyers involved." Karl laughed at Dream's sudden threat and covered his mouth with a wide grin.

"I'm serious, they're good lawyers." Dream added and Karl had to calm his giggle fit.

"Why are you laughing?" Dream asked, laughing a bit too because Karl's laugh was highly infectious.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that was just so sudden," Karl laughed and tried to regain his breath. "Thank you for the offer though."

"Do I need to get them involved?" Dream and Karl thought for a moment.

"I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do." Karl mumbled, running a hand down his face.

"On one hand, I really honking hate this whole situation, but on the other hand, I don't want to be like "hahaha, no! We aren't dating psyche!" when we actually are." Karl mumbled. "And I didn't plan on coming out yet until I at least even knew what label I wanted to use."

Dream was silent now as he thought. "You know you don't need a label, right?" he mumbled.

"Huh?" Karl asked and Dream cleared his throat.

"You don't need a label, Karl. Sure you can use one if that's what you want, but if you feel more comfortable being unlabeled, or if you just can't find a label that fits you, it's fine not to have one." Dream stated and Karl clenched and unclenched his hands.

"Really?" He asked. He'd always thought you had to have a label, or that it wasn't "valid" to be unlabeled.

"Yeah!" Dream was smiling, Karl could hear it in his friend's voice. "Everyone tries to pressure labels but in reality, not having one doesn't affect anyone that isn't you. It's completely valid and actually pretty common." 

Karl smiled and nodded. "Thank you Dream. But I, dammit. I still don't know what I want to do. Like do I take legal action and get the photos taken down and just pretend it never happened or do I come out?"

"It's your choice Karl. There is no "or," whatever you decide, you decide. If you want to just not address it, that's fine. If you want to address it, that's also fine. You can make any choice you want to it, it's your life. Random people who follow us on twitter aren't owed an explanation to your private life." Dream said and Karl smiled even wider.

"God, thank you. A lot really Dream. I was freaking so much over this, Sapnap blames himself for all of it when it's really not his fault, I just- Thank you man." Karl said.

"No problem, anything to help my homies. And I talked to Sapnap andI think he's starting to understand that he's not to blame." Dream said. "I'm also happy for you guys. I forgot to say that. It was so painful watching you two simp and pine for each other. Chris and I texted each other non-stop complaining." 

Karl turned red. "You and Chris talked about that?" He squeaked and Dream tea kettle wheezed.

"Yeah! The whole week too! Sapnap wouldn't stop texting me about how he was in love with you and didn't know how he'd last the week, etcetera, etcetera. I texted Chris some point complaining and he complained about you, too, and how oblivious you were being." Dream said through wheezing laughter and Karl turned even redder.

"Y'know, it's not fair to make fun of me when you're in love with Mr. NotFound." Karl shot back and smiled in self-satisfaction when Dream's laughter came to an abrupt, choked stop.

"Hey, that's completely different-" "How so?" Karl was smirking now. "Well first off, he lives in a different country and second of all, George is so painfully straight." Dream remarked and Karl burst out into laughter, clutching his stomach.

"What?" Dream asked as Karl laughed.

"What?!" He demanded.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! You are literally how I sounded at the start of the week!" Karl commented.

"Oh shut up, just get on minecraft, Quackity is demanding the feral boys in the discord." Dream quickly changed the subject and Karl rushed over to his pc, hanging up on Dream and entering the call.

"My friends!" He called out. "Karl!" Sapnap's voice rang out and he smiled even wider.

Quackity explained what they were going to be doing and started his stream, introducing his friends and booting up Jackbox. 

Karl laughed at the jokes his friends made, blissfully ignoring the twitch chat as always. Quackity had TTS turned off, knowing full well he was going to be spammed with questions about his friends and they all had fun.

Karl kept teasing Dream the whole time, making plenty of DNF jokes during Quiplash. Dream shot right back with Karlnap jokes, both making each other equally embarrassed as their other three friends watched.

Bad and Ranboo joined at some point and their jokes turned to Rat jokes as they do.

Karl was having the time of his life, laughing, giggling with his friends and boyfriend, and about halfway through he suddenly figured out what he wanted to do, how he was going to "fix" his situation.

"Guys, I have to go piss." Karl said randomly and disconnected, Quackity laughing an auto tuned laugh as he did.

"Language." Karl heard Bad reprimand on stream and Karl pulled out his phone, fingers running across his keyboard as he typed a message to Sapnap, asking if he had permission to state something.

His thumbs danced over his phone as he anxiously awaited a response.

"Hold on guys, I'm getting a text." Sapnap said over the call.

"Ohohoho, is it a hot chic?" Quackity asked.

There was a moment of silence as Sapnap read the text and Karl felt his face heat up.

"Uh- yeah, totally. Hot as fuck chic." Sapnap commented and Karl's phone pinged as he got a response.

"Language." Bad said again.

Karl's eyes ran over the confirmation response and he felt giddy as he opened Twitter.

So, okay, so it may not have started the way he wanted, but he was still going to make this his thing. He was coming out his way. Not some random fangirls way, not by issuing an apology, not by trying to give an excuse.

To him, the picture never happened. It didn't count. He didn;t care if everyone saw it, he was pretending the event never occured and making this his own thing.

He made a tweet and quickly closed the app, unmuting on discord.

"Alright, I'm back." Karl said and there was a moment of silence as his friends all probably received the same notification from his tweet.

"OHHHH?" Quackity yelled out, as if this was new information to him.

Well, technically it was.

""Streaming with my boyfriend this Friday?"" I didn't know you had a boyfriend, Karl." Bad said, blissfully unaware to drama as he always was and Karl felt a smile on his face grow.

"Yep! Everyone should totally tune into twitch.tv/karljacobs this Friday at 8 pm EST!" Karl announced.

"Heyheyheyhey, no self promo-ing on my account!" Quackity yelled.

"I'm gonna crash your stream," Dream stated and George laughed at that.

"Can I also crash your stream?" Ranboo asked. "Yeah, yeah I guess you guys can crash if you wanted. My boyfriend and I were mostly just gonna be playing his favorite game on Jackbox and then probably CS:GO or something." Karl responded.

"What game?" Bad asked.

"Monster Seeking Monster." Karl responded and smiled as he opened chat, not being able to read it with how fast the messages were going.

"Oh that's Sapnap's favorite game too!" Bad commented and Karl laughed.

"Bad, please start using twitter more." Quackity begged.

"Sap?" Dream called out suddenly and Karl saw that the other man was muted.

Quickly, the mute icon disappeared and a green circle surrounded his name.

"Whoo!" Sapnap shouted, smile evident in his voice and Karl smiled at his discord profile. "See you all on Karl Jacob's stream this Friday!" 

"YEAHHHHHHHH!" Quackity cheered and the others all laughed as they continued on with the game like normal.

However there was a significant increase in innuendos shot at Karl by Sapnap.

But no one cared to mention it, not wanting to break how happy both their friends sounded

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So next chapter is officially going to be the last one. Just a heads up! It'll also probably be super long to compensate.
> 
> I am writing this bio as Ranboo starts his stream, I am not mentally prepared for whatever lore he is going to drop.
> 
> I also don't really like how this chapter came out but I rewrote it four times and this was the best version, sorry for the delay lmao
> 
> Also hi my friends who found this (you know who you are XD)

**Author's Note:**

> (Twitter was recently changed to be literally_chaos and is no longer sonayesul for rebranding and clout purposes lmao)


End file.
